Naruhina & Assassins Creed REWRITE
by Lord of Tuft
Summary: Some mysterious, hooded people arrive in Konoha, and they've brought a gift. What will happen as a war breaks loose? Naru/Hina Please R/R
1. The newcomers

Hello everyone, I read over my story from the beginning, and thought: Wow, this could do with some improvements. So I've now decided to rewrite the first few chapters. I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the original one, and hope you will continue to review, for I do not see any reason to write this story if nobody gives a damn.

And if you have an idea for a better name on the story, suggestions are very welcome. I suck at coming up with names...

CHAPTER 1: The newcomers.

In the early morning mist, you could see the silhouettes of five hooded people walking slowly towards the hidden village in front of them. They were walking so quietly that you could barely hear their feet touch the crispy morning ground. They moved with such stealth and agility, their armor and heavy weaponry didn't seem to affect these men in any way at all.  
As they closed in on the villages gates, the two Sound ninja keeping guard noticed these silhouettes, and got ready to stop them. The five hooded people stopped in front of the guards, the silence of the early morning made every other sound much more noticeable.  
Nothing was said by either side for several seconds, but then one of the Sound guards decided to speak the first word.  
"Who are you, and what is your business here?"  
Not a sound came from the other side, they were just standing there in complete silence like they were ghosts. The Sound ninja started to get annoyed. They both reached for their weapons just in case, and spoke up.  
"I said: who are you, and what is your business here?" Without lifting his head, one of the five men spoke calmly:  
"We have business with your `Lord´ Orochimaru." He said with a voice that betrayed no emotion what so ever.  
The Sound ninjas eyes landed on a man in a dark navy colored robe, and a small cape over his left shoulder, fastened by a shoulder pad. He had many armor plates running down his right shoulder ending with a bracelet at his wrist. He had the same kind of bracelet on his left wrist as well. He also had a leather armored belt fastened around his waist with a weird looking symbol in the middle of his belt. In fact, all of the five persons had this symbol on their belts. He looked back at the man, looking at a beautiful sword with a long light brown handle with golden vines sewn amongst the brown oak resting at his left side. The blade itself was curvy like a katana, only more gracious. On his right side laid a combat knife very similar to the sword, only a shorter blade, and a shorter handle. He also had a crossbow hanging on his back.  
The Sound ninja laughed silently to themselves.  
"And what do you think you..." Before he even managed to finish his sentence, two of the hooded people sailed towards them, kneeing them in the stomach. They then made a swift pirouette around the Sound ninja, laying their arm around their neck, and in one swift move broke their neck. The Sound ninja fell dead to the cold ground, and the mysterious men continued to walk through the big gates like nothing had ever happened.

They walked quietly through the still empty streets. No one knew they were there. No one knew of the two dead guards, and no one had raised the alarm. The only two who could have done it so far, was dead.  
They approached the royal residence, in front of the entrance stood five Sound ninjas. They were chatting quietly amongst themselves, but soon noticed the presence of some people they didn't recognize. The leader, by the looks of him, stepped forward with his men following up behind him. Because he had not heard of visitors, the Sound ninja was a bit suspicious, and therefore spoke up.  
"State your business here!" The people in front of them did not seem to take any heed of his words, so the Sound ninja, along with his men, drew a Wakizashi each, and pointed at the intruders.  
"Halt!" the Sound ninja ordered.  
Without slowing down, the man in dark navy lifted his hand slightly, and the Sound ninja fell dead. Jumping down from the roofs, two hooded persons with longbows joined the others, and together they walked up the stairs of the royal residence.

Orochimaru were looking out the window down on the dead Sound Shinobi. He made a short laugh, only loud enough that he could hear it. He had had many different men attempting to kill him, but none had been foolish enough to attack him in his own home. That was what made him realize that he shouldn't take these people lightly. And he had to admit, he was impressed by their bravery and brazenness.  
"May I ask who you gentlemen are..?" Orochimaru asked politely with a devilish smile on his face as he turned to face the seven newcomers. He looked them over, and could clearly tell that they were not ninjas. Judging from their attire and weaponry, which he to his surprise had never seen before, he would say that they were foreigners.  
"Who we are is not important," the leader answered in a polite, yet monotone voice, "it is our business here that is important." Orochimaru tensed at his voice. He knew he would have to dispose of these intruders as quickly as possible. He had great plans to achieve, and having these people running around would only prove to be a nuisance.  
"And what is it that you want?" Orochimaru asked carefully, ready for anything to happen.  
"..." The man in front of him didn't say a word, and Orochimaru, despite his good eyesight, could not see his facial expression due to it being hidden by the shade his hood provided.  
He lifted his head ever so lightly, and his voice darkened, "your life."  
The window behind Orochimaru shattered as an eight man jumped in with a blade extending out of the bracelet around his wrist. Orochimaru's eyes widened, and he cursed his carelessness for not anticipating such an attack.  
"You must pay for your crimes."

In the Hidden Leaf Village, it was a beautiful sunny day. The children ran around playing with each other. The adults were working in stores of all kinds, or simply enjoying the beautiful day. And just around the corner, a shy Kunoichi were looking at her favorite Shinobi eat. She may be older and much more experienced, but she was still the exact same shy Hinata as she were three years ago.  
When Naruto had come home the very first day, she had been head over heels. She wanted to see him more than anything, but when she finally saw him, she had immediately hid herself out of reflex. And that had ruined her first chance, because the village had received news of the Kazekage's kidnapping. And Naruto had left the village to save his friend.  
Now Naruto was finally back, and he was at long last eating at his favorite shop: Ichiraku's.  
`Come on Hinata, just go over and take a seat next to him. It's not that hard,´ she thought to herself. But it didn't matter, for she was still frozen to the ground. Suddenly she felt a kick to her butt, she stumbled forwards and fell through the curtains of the Ichiraku Ramen stand. Naruto looked down at the person who had suddenly appeared and laughed.  
"You should be a little bit more careful Hinata," Naruto stopped laughing and looked at her with kind blue orbs, and asked in a mildly sympathetic voice: "Are you all right?" Hinata blushed a little bit before she stuttered:  
"I-I'm fine..." She looked behind her and saw Kiba, Sakura give her a thumbs up. Shino, the expressionless person he was, simply nodded with a stoic appearance. She gave them a weak smile in return, and took the seat next to Naruto. She made a mental note to thank them later, for she would not have come in here because of her own willpower. Naruto looked at her and asked:  
"So do you want something to eat, Hinata? I'll pay for your food." Hinata blushed slightly and mumbled:  
"You don't have to pay..." Naruto simply smiled and said:  
"Nah, I've got loads of money. Ero-sennin used all my money on women and sake during our training trip, but Suna paid me loads for saving Gaara, and I have no idea what I should spend them on. So I'll be more than happy to pay for your food, Hinata," Hinata blushed into a deep crimson red, and smiled.  
"Th-thank you... N-Naruto-kun." Naruto smiled from ear to ear, as he turned to the old man owning the ramen stand.  
"Hey old man! Give Hinata anything she wants to eat! On me!" The old man turned around and smiled, and his daughter, Ayame gave a little wink to Hinata. She saw this and turned towards Naruto, who was slurping in his ramen. She got lost in his deep... blue... wonderful... eyes... The eyes she could drown herself in, and then she sighed dreamingly to herself.  
She really could not understand what it was about him that made people hate him so much. However, Naruto had made a lot of improvements after they became Genin. He had made many friends, and they respected him. Hinata knew that Naruto was happy about that, and that he was content. She smiled one final time before turning to Ayame, and ordered her meal.

The six mysterious men walked towards the gates of Konoha in the same silence that they had used walking towards The Hidden Sound just a few days ago. They had their objective. They had their plan. The first part had been dealt with, now it was time to really begin.  
The two ninja guarding the gates of Konoha, saw these strange, hooded men walking towards them. They looked at each other questioningly, and then awaited their arrival.  
The group stopped in front of the guard post. The leader in the dark navy robe stepped over to the guard booth in two steps, and said:  
"We wish to speak with your leader, the Hokage," the two guards looked at the men. They wore weapons and armor. It looked like they were equipped for a war that was about to come. One of the guards bowed his head slightly in an attempt to take a look at their faces. However, he did so in vain. The hoods shadowed their faces, so he could not get a clear view of them. Not sure what to think about these strangers, one of the guards asked cautiously:  
"What is it that you want to speak of?" the leader slowly drew his hood back, revealing his face and said friendly:  
"We are here on a diplomatic errand," the two guards looked over the man's face, and nodded.  
As the group entered the village, the guards were looking into the air in front of them in astonishment.  
"Hey, Izumo?" the first guard said.  
"Yeah?"  
"That guy was bloody handsome."

TBC

Well, that was the first rewrite. I'm not changing too much, i'm just changing some parts I think I could write better, and I'm gonna change a few small things to make it fit better with my new plan for the main plot. Please review if you like my work :)

Lord of Tuft.


	2. The offer

The second chapter of my rewrite. Enjoy :)

CHAPTER 2: The offer

Hinata sat inside Ichiraku gazing over at Naruto as he was telling her about the mission where he and the others went to rescue Gaara. She knew that most of it was true, but she also knew that Naruto would make it over exaggerated. But she didn`t really care about that. She was just happy to eat ramen whilst listening to Naruto tell her stories of his adventures.  
She would sometimes blush when she thought about it. She wouldn't go as far as to call it a date, but to the people passing by outside the ramen stand it might seem like one. She sighed as she gazed at her first and only love in life without noticing that he had stopped talking, and was now looking at her with a worried look in his eyes.  
"HEY HINATA!" he shouted while snapping his fingers in front of her face. Hinata jumped slightly as she returned to the real world. She was blushing a dozen shades of red until she finally settled on the brightest one.  
She didn't dare look up from the ground. She was a little worried about what he might be thinking when he caught her staring at him like that.  
She mustered up all of her courage, and looked up only to see a worried Naruto.  
"You all right, Hinata? You're not feeling sick are you?" Hinata blushed even deeper now and looked away. She was a little happy though, seeing at her fears weren't a reality. That was something she hated about herself. She would expect the worst, but then the worst never happened. It was something she had developed after her mother died, and everything began going downhill. She would always tell herself that it's good to be pessimistic, for then you wouldn't be so disappointed when it happened.  
She had made progress however, after Naruto left. In fact, she had made major progress in a lot of areas, but now that Naruto was back, it seemed like everything had been thrown out of the window.  
Hinata smiled weakly at Naruto without really looking at him.  
"Hai, Naruto-kun. I'm alright," Naruto chuckled lightly.  
"I'm glad to hear it," he stretched a little bit and said: "Man, does this bring back memories. you're still as shy as I remember, Hinata."  
"Hinata smiled a little more hearing that. Normally she would have felt awful hearing something like that, but she remembered that time many years ago. Right before the finals of the Chuunin exams, Naruto had said something that had made her more happy than she had ever been since her mother's death.  
`I like people like you.´  
She smiled at the memory.  
"But you know," Naruto continued, "you're not the exact same as you were before I left," Hinata looked over at the boy. "You've changed. I can tell. And not just in your appearance, but also your personality. You've really grown Hinata," He looked over the blushing girl. "In more ways than one," he finished his sentence, and started finishing the remainder of his meal.  
It took a little time for Hinata to process the last part Naruto had told her. And now she did something she had thought she'd gotten rid of: She fainted.  
"N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata fell to the ground, and lay there with closed eyelids. Naruto first looked at her in panic, but then his eyes softened.  
"You know," he said, "I actually saw that on coming."

Hinata woke up shortly after, only to see Naruto's face up close. And he was grinning like a madman.  
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Hinata," Hinata looked at Naruto with wide, surprised eyes. She was about to say something when she heard the old man Teuchi say something outrageous with a huge smile plastered on his face:  
"Hey, Naruto. Why don't ya give your girlfriend some space so she can breathe, huh?" Hinata's eyes didn't widen from that comment. That's because she couldn't get them wider, even though she tried. They had already reached their maximum when she woke up to Naruto's face so close to hers.  
Naruto's eyes however, widened. He jumped up and began explaining that she wasn't in fact his girlfriend. Sure she was beautiful, and as he'd just said, she'd grown in more ways than one. But he didn't say that of course.  
Hinata was a little saddened by this. But even so, she found the situation a little amusing and so she giggled.  
She stopped giggling, and looked outside the ramen stand. She saw a lot of strangers in hoods walking down the street towards the Hokage tower. She wondered for a second who they were, and what they wanted. But her eyes eventually rested on the one in a dark navy colored robe. He was the only one of them who had drawn his hood back, so she could clearly see his face. He was an adult, but he was beautiful! His eyes were the same color as his robe: Dark navy. He had long golden brown hair, just about the same length as hers. He also had a short trimmed beard that was barely visible. And his ears were... pointy. She looked him over carefully, and he was looking straight back at her with an almost piercing gaze. It was almost like he could look into her very being, and it was scary to say the least.  
His eyes then wandered towards Naruto, who still were trying to explain the situation to Teuchi and his daughter. He studied him with the exact same piercing eyes and then looked back at Hinata. He kept his eyes locked with hers before he smiled a small friendly smile and quickly started walking down the street again.  
"I wonder who that could be."

Tsunade were sitting at her desk, looking at her paperwork and sighed. She knew that there would be a shitload of paperwork when she took the job, but for the love of all that's holy. She never expected it to be this much.  
She sighed again before smiling. She rose her head looking everywhere in the room. She took up a bottle of sake from the drawer, and laughed quietly to herself. She took out a small glass, and poured herself a shot.  
As she brought the tip to her lips there was a loud bang, and Tsunade looked at the door that had been kicked open by her secretary. Tsunade closed her eyes in disappointment and silently cursed to herself.  
"Crap..." The young woman stomped over to the Hokage's desk.  
"Lady Tsunade, you know you can`t drink on work! You have to finish your paperwork first!" Shizune shouted annoyed. But before Tsunade could come up with a good counter line, a Shinobi walked into her office and said:  
"Excuse me Lady Hokage, but I have six men out here who wishes to speak with you."  
Tsunade were cheering in her mind. She were off the hook for now.  
"Send them in," the ninja nodded and walked out of the office. A few seconds later, three men in white robes, two men in grey robes, and one man in a dark navy robe entered the office. They stopped in front of her desk, and took their hoods off. Tsunade looked at each and every one of them in turn. They were all foreigners, that much she could tell. She could also see that they were all battle hardened as everyone of them had scars on their faces, except for the one in navy.  
`Hm, he's pretty handsome,´ Tsunade thought, but what her eyes finally landed on were all of their weapons. Her eyes hardened as she looked menacingly on them. The one in navy started to laugh.  
"I assure you, there is no need to worry about our weapons My Lady," he said in a calming voice, but he was still laughing. "My name is Haldir Thraldirion, but people usually refer to me as Hawkeye," he continued.  
"This is Lover," he nodded towards the first man in white. Lover was quite handsome as well. He had light brown hair down to his shoulders and he was the only one of them who didn`t wear any armor. He had a beautiful longbow over his shoulder, a lot of throwing knives and two beautifully made combat knives on each side of his hips. He also had a cute scar on his chin.  
He continued to the next man in white,  
"this is Canine," Canine had the same weapons as Lover, but unlike him, he also wore a chest plate and shoulder pads. He was a bald man, with a scar on both his cheeks and with tired eyes so she couldn't say what color they were.  
"This is Psycho, my second in command," Psycho was the last one in white, you could see the silver chainmail under his robe. He wore a shoulder pad on his right arm with a metal plate on the right side of his chest. He had two swords, on either side and some throwing knives. He was bald like Canine, and he had a scar beginning at the top of his right eye continuing up across his skull.  
"This is Joker," Joker was wearing a grey robe and had a sledge hammer hanging from his belt. He wore leather armor around his waist, and had metal plates on his boots. He had short black hair, and kind light green eyes. He had a scar crossing his lips, and one in his left temple.  
"And this here is Bear," Bear was a _huge _man, not fat, but muscular. He had a gauntlet on his right hand with metal plates on the knuckles. He wore shoulder pads, and knee pads both in leather. And on his back he had an ax.  
Tsunade studied them. They were all missing the ring finger on their left hand, and had the same kind of bracelet on their left wrist. She then looked at the belts on their stomachs. They all had the same symbol on their stomach looking like an `A´, and this told her who they were.  
"I've heard about you. I take it that you are Assassins?" Hawkeye smiled.  
"Yes, I am the leader of the Assassins Order, and I am here to bargain with you." Tsunade leaned forward in interest.  
"Go on," she pried. Hawkeye nodded.  
"It is of our interest to form an alliance with The Fire country, and build an Assassins guild in here in Konoha."

It was getting late, and Naruto was walking Hinata home. They didn`t talk, the tension around them was a little awkward after the incident at Ichiraku. Hinata hated the silence between them, but she didn`t dare say a word in fear of saying something idiotic. She shot nervous glances at Naruto, who was looking in the ground as they walked. It almost looked like he was blushing.  
`Why can`t I just say something?´ But before she had an answer they had arrived at the Hyuuga compound. They both stopped for a moment and looked at each other.  
Naruto looked apologetically at Hinata and said regretfully:  
"Sorry about what happened back at Ichiraku's. Old man Teuchi often makes outrageous jokes like that, so I hope he didn't make you feel uncomfortable."  
Hinata shook her head,  
"Oh no, it was nothing like that. I was just a little embarrassed, that's all," oh, Hinata thought, if you had only known the truth. But being the coward she is, she didn't say anything more.  
"Well, it was really good seeing you again Hinata," Naruto said, "we should do something like that again."  
Hinata blushed slightly at the suggestion, but smiled.  
"I would like that, Naruto-kun." Naruto smiled and bid her goodnight, and walked off in the direction of his apartment. He knew that his room was going to need a real cleaning when he got there.

Hiashi had seen the little rendezvous from a window, but he didn't seem to think much of it. He knew the Fourth. They'd been good friends when he was alive, and so Hiashi trusted his judgment. He honestly didn't mind her seeing the boy, it was in fact good for her as she'd gained a lot more confidence from that boy. He was a bit more skeptical when it came to a relationship though. At least when there were so many better candidates.  
The boy would have to prove himself at least.

"The assassins wants to make an alliance with The Hidden Leaf?" Tsunade asked in disbelieving astonishment.  
"Mae*," (*yes) Hawkeye replied while nodding, "and we wish to build a guild for our Order here as well. In return for this, my Assassins will be at your disposal. You can send us out on missions as you please, unless we are busy of course. Our own objectives will always come first. We will also aid you in case of an attack, or war. And if you would like, we can give special training to your ANBU, as you call them, and the higher ranking ninja. We can teach them stealth, weapons use and some jutsus known among the Order as well. Putting it in other words: We will be at your disposal as you please."  
Tsunade looked at Hawkeye in awe. Simply put, she was blown back.  
"And as sign of good faith, we have a little gift for you as well," Hawkeye continued as he took out a scroll form his robe. Tsunade looked curiously at the scroll, surely they could not have anything more to offer. How wrong she was.  
Hawkeye opened the scroll and formed a one handed handsign. There was a loud poof with smoke, and as the smoke cleared, Tsunade stood up in shock.  
Lying in front of her, was the dead body of Orochimaru.

TBC

This was a chapter that I really enjoyed to rewrite. There were quite a few things I didn't like about this chapter, and I feel really good about correcting those mistakes. Hopefully this will make more people like my story :)

Lord of Tuft


	3. Help

I hope you like this story, please review and comment my work :)

CHAPTER 3: Help

Tsunade looked down at the dead body of her former friend and teammate.  
"SHIZUNE!" Tsunade screamed. Shizune came running in with some guards, fearful that the armed men might have attacked her. But they were all blown back by what they saw.  
"Get it to the autopsy room... NOW!" Shizune nodded swiftly and called for a stretcher. Two of the guards nodded, and left the room to fetch one. Shortly after, they came back in with a stretcher. They placed the body of Orochimaru onto the stretcher, and Shizune along with the ninja she'd brought with her, left the room as quickly as they came.  
"We don`t know if the body is real or not, but we will find out soon enough when the results from the autopsy comes in. But if it really is Orochimaru... Then how... the hell... did you do it?" Hawkeye stayed silent a few seconds before answering the Hokage's question.  
"I am not saying that it was an easy job to accomplish, My Lady. He managed killed two of us, even though we had the element of surprise, before we were able to finally take him down. Iron and Scarecrow, two good and faithful men, died." Tsunade could hear everyone mumbling three words:  
"Rest in peace."  
Hawkeye looked at Tsunade with a neutral look.  
"Do not get me wrong My Lady, we did not kill him for your sake," Hawkeye paused a second before continuing, "We killed him for his crimes: Using humans for his foul experiments and attempt of world domination. We assassins fight for peace. Peace in all things," Hawkeye looked at Tsunade with determination etches into his face, and his eyes held a piercing gaze. "And we intend to achieve just that."

Morning came, and Hinata woke up early the next day. She glanced over at the watch. 6:15. She didn`t really want to sleep any longer, so she got out of bed and started her morning routines. She'd had a pretty good day yesterday, and she could barely remember having a good dream about Naruto.  
She giggled briefly before entering the bathroom that was installed in her own bedroom. She took a brief look at herself in the mirror before entering the shower.  
When she came out of the bathroom, she began putting on her normal attire. She then stroke a comb through her long lavender hair, making it straight.  
She looked back at the clock, which was reading 6:50. She decided that it was time to go meet up with Kurenai-sensei and the rest of her teammates.  
Walking around the quiet village in the morning always made Hinata relax a little more than usual. She took a deep breath of the lovely morning air as she walked through the streets that were slowly coming to life. She turned a corner, and just barely managed to avoid bumping into Sakura.  
Seeing who it was she'd just met, Sakura smiled broadly and asked:  
"So, how did it go?"  
As the two Kunoichi's walked around the slowly growing busy streets of Konoha, Hinata told Sakura about what happened in the evening. Sakura looked a little disappointed even though it had been a pretty good day in Hinata's opinion. She couldn't say however, that she didn't understand Sakura's disappointment.  
"Hinata, you have to do something or else things will stay like this forever," Hinata sighed melancholically and replied:  
"I know Sakura-san, but I just can`t. I`m too scared. What if he doesn`t like me in the way that I like him. Like how I love him?" Sakura sighed. Basically everyone in the village could understand the Hyuuga scion's feelings for the blonde brat. Everyone except Naruto that is.  
She looked to the side for a second before turning over to Hinata.  
"Why don`t you just try it now? He`s over at Ichiraku eating," Sakura pointed in the direction of the ramen stand. Hinata looked at her loves back and swallowed nervously. Now were as good a time as any right? too bad it wouldn't make a difference.

The group of Assassins were sitting inside a tea house eating their breakfast, as they awaited for the answer from Tsunade. They knew that it wouldn't take long for the test results to come in, and they also knew the answer to their proposition.  
What they had proposed was outrageous, and they knew that the Hokage would have some doubts about their motives for helping the village out so much. However, Hawkeye knew how the mindset of humans worked, and he was positive that she would agree.  
The Assassin known as Lover, was sitting on his bench looking out at all the people passing by. He was snickering lightly to himself.  
"Now she is a pretty one. Or maybe that one over there... hm, decisions, decisions, decisions. "  
Bear, who was sitting opposite of Lover, just sighed.  
"You are such a simpleminded pervert Lover. Everywhere we go, you end up sleeping with every girl in the area," Lover looked up with a matter-of-factly look in his face.  
"I do not sleep with _everyone_. Just the pretty ones. Besides, I`m just living up to my name," Lover ended his speech with an almost girly sounding snicker.  
Bear sighed again as he rested his head in the palm of his hand. Canine, listening in on their conversation, shook his head in disgust. He never understood what was wrong with Lover, and he doubted anyone did.  
Sitting on the table next to them, Joker were showing off a trick to Hawkeye. This was something he really enjoyed doing, and it was mostly the Master who had to watch it.  
"Okay, pick a card," Joker said with barely constrained excitement.  
Hawkeye looked down at the deck of cards and picked one. He looked at it. The nine of spades. Joker nodded with a big smile.  
"Now remember it, and put it back in." Hawkeye was really getting tired of Jokers boring tricks, but he did as he was told. Not like he had anything better to do.  
Joker began shuffling the cards, and as he did that, Hawkeye looked out of the tea house in an attempt to find something interesting. It was that lavender haired girl again. Hawkeye cocked an eyebrow at the girl as she seemed to be staring at something. It seemed like he had just found something better to do.  
"It was this one, right?" Joker asked him happily.  
Hawkeye looked over at the smiling face of Joker, and down to the card in his hand. It was the nine of spades. Hawkeye blinked once before replying:  
"Nope..." he then stood up, and walked out of the teashop.  
Joker, who was shocked from this statement, looked over at the others. They all just shrugged at him, and got back to drinking tea, sleeping or talking. They honestly didn't care about Jokers tricks. He then turned to look at the retreating form of his Master, and shouted after him:  
"Oh, you`re just saying that to piss me off!"

Hinata stared at Naruto's back from the same location as the other day. She wanted to talk to him again, she really did. But she couldn`t get herself to go over to him and say `hello´. Even though it's probably the easiest thing to do, she just couldn't get herself to go talk to him like she did yesterday. It was such a problematic dilemma.  
"Love is a strange thing, is it not?" said a voice unfamiliar to her. Hinata turned around to find the source of the voice. She looked at the face of a man who seemed to be in his thirties. She recognized him. It was the man she`d seen the other day. The man with the soul-piercing eyes. She blushed lightly to his comment.  
"W-what do you m-mean?" Hinata asked in such a low voice, that the stranger almost couldn't hear. He did however, and continued his little speech.  
"Love can be such a wonderful thing sometimes. Yet it can still be as cruel as hate."  
Hinata gazed at the mysterious man, going over every beautiful detail on his face. But her eyes rested at his pointy ears.  
The man noticed where Hinata was looking, and made a short laugh.  
"I see you have noticed my ears," He placed his fist above his heart, and made a light bow, "my name is Haldir Thraldirion, but most people just call me Hawkeye. I am the leader of the Assassins Order, and I am also an elf."  
Hinata`s eyes widened at that one fact.  
"I thought elves were just parts of fairytales. I never knew that they were actually real."  
Again Hawkeye took a short laugh, and said:  
"That is understanding. We elves were once a proud people, but we are almost extinct now. That is due to many enemies and wars, so we now hide in a few peaceful realms where no one bothers us. Only a few trusted mortals know about where we our lands lay." Hinata nodded briefly before turning her eyes towards Naruto again.  
"My name is Hinata by the way, Hinata Hyuuga. Can I help you with something Hawkeye-san?"  
Hawkeye looked down at Hinata, now with a hint of sadness in his eyes and spoke:  
"I can see you love that young man over there, Hyuuga-sama. And I think he loves you too. He just do not know it yet." A little smile crossed his lips as he continued. "And I want to give you a little help regarding that blonde."

Shizune walked slowly into the Hokage office. Tsunade looked up at her from her pile of paperwork with a questioning look. Shizune looked at the Hokage with a mixture of happiness and disbelief.  
"It really is Orochimaru. He`s finally dead."  
Tsunade wore a serious expression on her face, but a smile would begin to tug at her lips.  
"Give word to the assassins. Tell them to get over here. I want to talk to them."  
Shizune nodded, and walked out of the office with a slight smile of her own.  
Tsunade leant back in her chair, putting her arms behind her head, smiling like a maniac. A dangerous foe had just been dealt with.

Hinata and Hawkeye were walking quietly through the forest outside the village. Hinata looked up at Hawkeye`s face and decided to break the silence.  
"Hawkeye-san, why do you want to help me and Naruto-kun getting together?"  
Hawkeye looked back at her and paused before answering.  
"When you have been in this world as long as I have, you learn a few things. I know the importance of love, and if you do not experience the beauty of it at least once, you will lead a sad life. You will grow weak and tired, with no real happiness in your life. I can see that, Naruto-kun was it? has been lonely for most part of his life."  
"Well, I guess that's true," replied Hinata, "but he's got a lot of friends, and people have begun treating him better."  
"Yes," Hawkeye agreed, "but he is without love, you see. However, when I saw the way you looked at him, I knew that it was a good thing. But you strike me as a shy and timid person who is scared to speak her mind."  
Hinata blushed to the fact that it was all true. She was scared. She waited a few seconds to let it all sink in before she asked him:  
"Hawkeye-san, have you ever been in love?"  
Hawkeye stopped, and his face darkened. He looked at Hinata with a look which she recognized as sadness in his eyes.  
"Yes. Many times. But that is a story for another day."  
Before Hinata got to ask him anything else, another person popped up. Hawkeye looked over at him and smiled.  
"Ah, Lover. Any news?"  
The man known as Lover walked over to him and whispered something in his ear. Hawkeye smiled then nodded. He looked over at Hinata and said:  
"I must go now, but we will talk more later." He turned around and began walking, but Lover stayed behind examining Hinata. He smiled and said:  
"Well she`s a pretty one..."  
Hawkeye stopped in his tracks, and said loudly:  
"Lover, no! you are not going to sleep with her!"  
"But..."  
"No! She is way to young! Just get going you pervert!"  
Lover shrugged and walked away with his master. Hinata stayed behind with her mouth wide open, not really sure what the hell had just happened.

Hawkeye stopped, and looked down the street. Lover stopped beside him, not sure what was holding him up  
"That`s the blonde you were talking about, Hawkie?"  
Hawkeye nodded gravely and replied with a low but firm voice:  
"I can sense great evil and darkness around him. I do not know what it is, but he can be dangerous."  
"Are we going to kill him?"  
Hawkeye studied the blond boy with his piercing navy colored eyes. He looked over at his apprentice, and as said with a light tone:  
"No. I cannot put my finger on it, but there is something about that boy that strikes me as familiar," he looked thoughtful for a moment. "I wish to find out a little more about him, for I think he could be quite an interesting one. That boy has peeked my interest, so you just let me worry about him. The rest of you can just keep to our original objective in this village."  
Lover nodded, and continued onwards toward the Hokage tower. Hawkeye remained at the same spot for a few more seconds, just looking at the boy in front of him.  
"Quite the dilemma here," he hummed to himself. "That boy is the very definition of black and white. He might actually become a great person. Maybe," Hawkeye shrugged. He'd just have to find out as he went along.

All of the Assassins walked into the Hokage`s office. Tsunade looked at them with a serious face. This was it.  
"We have identified the body as Orochimaru's. I have no idea how you did it, but you have killed one of the greatest threats we`ve ever faced in this age." She took a deep breath before continuing, "I have talked to the elders, and albeit some of them a little reluctant, they all agreed that an alliance could be of a great asset to us. So, we agree to all of your terms. You are allowed to build your guild here whenever you are ready."  
Hawkeye smiled a friendly smile, and all of the Assassins laid their fists on their chests above their hearts and bowed.  
"Hannon le*, Hokage-sama. May our relationship be long and fruitful." (*Thank you)

TBC

This chapter was also quite fun to write. And the more I fix these chapters, the more I think: Wow, this was pretty bad. I started this some time ago, and I have to admit that I have made some progress in my writing skills. I hope you who's read the originals think the same thing. So please give me a review for my troubles when I should really be studying :)

Lord of Tuft.


	4. Go get him

CHAPTER 4: Go get him

Kiba came running down the street towards his teammates. He stopped panting in front of them.  
"Hey, have... you heard the... latest news?"  
Hinata and Shino looked at each other, and then at Kiba shaking their heads. Kurenai looked curiously at Kiba too. Kiba stood up straight and continued.  
"Those hooded guys that came a few days ago have killed Orochimaru!"  
Hinata gasped, and Shino, who never showed any emotions, actually opened his mouth in shock. Though you couldn't see it clearly because his jacket covered up his mouth.  
Kiba smiled and continued.  
"And that`s not all. I heard that they are Assassins, and they have made an alliance with the Leaf."  
Shino nodded, and said in his normal monotone voice:  
"This might be a good thing. An alliance between us and the legendary Assassins Order can be a great asset to us in missions. And if a war should break loose. Though the latter is highly doubtable."  
Hinata thought about Sasuke, and then at Naruto. She began wondering if maybe something had happened to him when the Assassins had attacked Orochimaru. And she knew how much Naruto cared for him. She looked over at Kiba and asked weakly:  
"Ano, K-Kiba-kun? Does Naruto-kun know about this?"  
Kiba looked at her, and answered:  
"Hai. Last time I saw him, he was trying to find the Assassins. He's probably gonna ask 'em about Sasuke. I wouldn't mind finding out about Sasuke either, though I just wanna punch him for being an idiot."  
Hinata looked down towards the ground, thinking of Naruto`s bond to Sasuke. How would he take the information they might have for him? For all she knew, they could have killed him too.

The Assassins sat inside the tea hut they had grown so fond of, drinking sake and eating dumplings.  
The Assassins had heard quite a bit about sake before they arrived in Japan. From what they had heard, it was quite strong and was best drunk in small doses. However, in the words of Psycho, it tasted like mild beer.  
Hawkeye were sitting at the table with Joker, slowly sipping at his sake cup. Joker was, to Hawkeye's great regret, showing him another trick of his.  
"Okay! I bet you that I can cut out the ace of spades in one move!" Joker said, putting down another deck of cards. Hawkeye looked at the deck with a typical Shikamaru-bored look, and said:  
"Very well, but let me shuffle them first so I know that you are not cheating."  
Joker gave him a sign telling him that he could do as he pleased. Hawkeye picked up the deck, and shuffled it thoroughly. He put the deck back down on the table, and waited for whatever trick Joker had up his sleeve.  
"Okay, let us see if you can cut it out in one try."  
Joker smirked as he unsheathed a knife and slung it trough the deck. He lifted his knife with the entire deck attached to the blade, and he was smiling like there was no tomorrow.  
"I _cut_ out the ace of spades in one try." Oh, Joker was happy now. There's no way the master could have expected that one.  
Hawkeye rarely made any big smiles, but this time, he smiled broadly as he lifted up his right hand.  
"No you didn`t..."

Joker looked at his hand and at what was stuck between his fingers. He had taken the ace out of the deck when he shuffled it.  
"OH GOD DAMN IT!" He shouted as he slammed his palm into the table.  
Hawkeye laughed, but was cut short as he heard someone barge into the tea hut. He looked behind him over at the entrance, and saw a blonde Shinobi walking towards him. Hawkeye recognized him. It was the boy.  
Naruto stopped in front of Hawkeye panting.  
"Hello," Hawkeye smiled a small friendly smile at him. "You are Naruto-kun, correct? It is nice to meet you."  
Naruto didn't seem to have heard the greeting as he went straight to the point.  
"You are the ones who killed Orochimaru, right?"  
Hawkeye was surprised by the sudden question, but he answered none the less.  
"Well, yes... we are."  
"What about Sasuke? Did you find Sasuke?"  
All the Assassins looked at each other and shrugged. None of them knew what he was talking about.  
Canine looked over at Naruto with his tired eyes and asked:  
"And who is Sasuke?"

Naruto explained the Assassins about the situation with Sasuke. He also made sure to describe him carefully, all the way from his appearance to his personality. When he had finished talking, he took a short pause and asked calmly:  
"So... did you find him?"  
Hawkeye sighed, and answered:  
"I am sorry my friend, but all we were supposed to do was to kill Orochimaru. We did not hear anything about your friend. There were a few people who tried to stop us, and most of them were killed. As far as I know he could easily have been one of them."  
Naruto`s head dropped a little in sadness and understanding.  
Hawkeye looked at Naruto for a little while. He went over the everything they had done in the Sound Village in his head. When he'd finished he added:  
"However, I cannot remember seeing anyone fitting the description you gave me, so I think he should be ok."  
Naruto looked up with renewed hope glimmering in his eyes and smiled towards them. He thanked the Assassins for their help and then he walked out of the tea hut. The Assassins looked at each other, having a wordless conversation with each other. The looks in their eyes said it all. Then Canine spoke what was on everybody's mind :  
"This Sasuke guy might turn out to be a problem in the future."  
Hawkeye nodded in agreement.  
"Yes, but we shall take care of him when the time comes."  
"Shall we kill him then?" Lover asked his mentor.  
"Most likely, yes. I doubt he is going to change his mind about revenge, so if we ever cross paths with him, we should kill him."  
Hawkeye looked at Naruto walking away, and then spotted the pale eyed girl watching him a little farther off. He indicated to the other Assassins that he was leaving, and walked out of the hut, making his way towards Hinata.  
Hinata took her eyes off of her blonde love, and looked at the Assassin coming towards her.  
"Hello Hyuuga-sama," Hawkeye said with small but warm smile.  
Hinata, not ever having cared much for formality, answered embarrassed:  
"Please, just call me Hinata."  
Hawkeye nodded and continued.  
"Very well my friend. I told you I would help you and Naruto-kun getting together, and it is about time we got started."  
Hinata looked at him, and shortly after, they were walking towards the forest.

A month passed, and the Assassins guild had been built. Many Assassins came, and left the village frequently. The inhabitants of Konoha were used to the Assassins by now and were quite fond of them.  
The village flourished, mostly because of the Assassins help, the missions were easily taken care of. And now the Hokage had even more men at her disposal, so the village could take even more jobs than usual.  
As always, Naruto was sitting inside his favorite ramen shop, and outside as always was Hinata. This time however, she was accompanied by Hawkeye and Lover.  
"All right Hinata-chan," said Hawkeye with a friendly tone, "there he is. Just remember what I have been telling you, and you should be fine."  
Lover looked over at Hinata enthusiastically, and added:  
"Yep, just throw yourself over him. Works every time."  
Hawkeye sighed deeply. He didn't know why Lover absolutely had to come with them. It wasn't like he would do any good.  
"Lover, when did that actually work? From what I remember, every girl you tried that on slapped you. Hard."  
Lover looked at Hawkeye with a baffled look, trying to come up with a snappy comeback. But his mouth were just moving with no sound. Damn. It was true. It was fun though.  
Hinata giggled slightly, though the two Assassins didn't notice. She slid her eyes over to her secret love again. She had determination in her eyes. She would do it this time.  
Hawkeye sighed again at Lovers stupidity.  
"All right," he said almost in an annoyed tone, "just go over to him. Try to make a normal conversation, and see were that leads."  
Hinata nodded. That didn't sound too hard. She took a deep breath, and walked towards Naruto.  
Behind her she could hear Lover whisper after her:  
"Just seduce him with your big breasts, and he'll be all over you."  
She blushed madly hearing that. She could also hear a grunt of pain as Hawkeye hit Lover across the head for his smartass comment.  
She took another deep breath to collect herself and remembered the words Hawkeye had told her during their meetings. Hawkeye had told her that firstly she'd have to work with her shyness, and tendency to stutter and whatnot around Naruto. So she should just breathe evenly, and try to clear her mind.  
"Ano, Naruto-kun?"  
Naruto turned around towards the familiar voice, just swallowing the last bits of ramen in his mouth and smiled.  
"Hey Hinata," he said happily.  
Hinata blushed, but shook it off.  
`Calm down, Hinata,´ she told herself.  
"Can I... Join you, N-Naruto-kun?"  
Naruto, who couldn`t talk at the moment since he had his mouth full of ramen, nodded as a response.  
Hinata took a seat next to him, and tried to come up with a topic for a normal conversation.  
"Its... very n-nice weather today."  
She mentally slapped herself for that. `Nice weather´? How clichéd can you get?  
"Uhm, yeah. It is," Naruto wasn't too sure how to respond to that, so he just went with the most simple answer.  
Hinata noticed Naruto's half hearted response, and began worrying that he might find this boring.  
She tried to come up with something else to talk about, but she kept remembering Lover's comment, so she only managed to stutter out a few words. Naruto looked over at Hinata with a look she couldn't decipher, and then she placed her face in her hands.  
"Oh, I can't do this," she moaned into her hands.  
She could now hear Naruto laughing next to hear.  
"Hehe, don't worry Hinata. I'm no good when it comes to small talk too, so it's nothing to be embarrassed of."  
Naruto smiled at Hinata, and she smiled back. She was a little thankful that he understood her to a certain point, but she was also a bit disappointed in herself for failing like that. Naruto looked over at Hinata with a mild sense of interest.  
"Hey, Hinata?" Hinata looked over at Naruto. "Do you know that Canine guy?" Hinata nodded.  
"Well, not personally. But I've met him a few times."  
"For some reason, he kinda reminds me of Shikamaru. He doesn't really show any emotions, and he's always got this tired, bored look in his eyes but he still seems so badass."  
"Yeah," Hinata answered with a happy tone. "When I think about it, I guess he does."

Around the corner, Hawkeye and Lover watched as the two teens conversed.  
"Well," Hawkeye concluded. "This went much better than I thought it would."  
Lover nodded in agreement.  
"Hooah. But Hawkie, I don't really see why you're taking your time to help these kids."  
Hawkeye thought about it for a moment.  
"I do not really know myself, Lover. I guess it would just be annoying to watch them run in circles. Besides, I don't think anyone should die before they have experienced love at least once. Also, I do not see any reason for me not to do something to pass the time until our plan is put into action."  
Lover shrugged with a wry smile.  
"Really? Well, I guess I can understand your reasoning. But what I don't understand is why you have to make it so difficult. In my opinion, love is like a mansion."  
Hawkeye cocked his eyebrow and looked at Lover.  
"A mansion?"  
"Yup," nodded Lover. "Big, overrated and too much trouble to keep clean. So when it comes to love, I just follow three simple rules: In, out, bail."  
"That is not love, it is a one night stand," sighed Hawkeye.  
"I fail to see the difference."  
"And that is why you are an idiot."  
Lover huffed, and Hawkeye peeked back at the pair, who was conversing happily. This could be a little interesting.

TBC

What do you think? I think that I have improved the story quite a lot now, so I'm happy with it. I hope you enjoy it too.

Lord of Tuft.


	5. The mission

CHAPTER 5: The mission

The Assassins had now settled in quite nicely. They were doing the occasional missions for the village, but for most of the time, they were just strolling around the streets.  
Hawkeye, as an elf, had naturally lived a long and eventful life. And because of that, he sometimes told stories of his life when he was inside his favorite tea house. He told them about times when his kind fought against monsters many ages ago. The War of Wrath, The War in the North and The War of the Ring, as he called them were some of the great ward he had participated in.  
He told about the courage of Men, and how they fought side by side once. He'd also told the about his peaceful days, and his loved once. Those days were uneventful though, as his loved once were usually killed by people who wanted him dead. His love life wasn't a happy one either. As most of his kind were now dead, he could only be with humans, and according to him, that is not possible as humans and elves are not compatible.  
Hinata felt for him, and understood a little better why he wished for her and Naruto to experience true love.

It was now dark out, and a small crowd of people left the tea house after listening to another story from Hawkeye. Among them was Naruto and Hinata. The two of them had gotten a little closer lately, and were speaking a lot more to each other than before. That was something Hinata was quite happy about.  
Everyone parted ways for the evening, and went on their way home. Naruto strolled merrily down the street towards his apartment whilst listening to the Kyuubi grumble silently inside his head.  
After a while, Naruto had had enough and asked the Kyuubi:  
`Alright, you've been grumbling a lot recently, Kyuubi. Not that I care or anything, but what's wrong?´ The Kyuubi went silent and didn't answer. `Hey, fur ball! Answer me will you? Don't make me charge you rent for staying in there.´  
The Kyuubi emitted a low but menacing growl.  
_**"I don't like that damned elf!"**__  
_ `And why is that? It's not like he's done anything to you.´  
_**"For your information, he has!"**_ Roared the Kyuubi in anger. _**"He almost killed me once!"  
**_Naruto stopped dead in his tracks hearing that.  
'What do you mean he almost killed you once?'  
_**"I kinda... attacked an Elvish village a couple of thousand years back and... It didn`t end to well on my part..."**_  
Naruto was baffled at the newly acquired information, but also curious.  
'But I thought humans couldn't kill demons.'  
The Kyuubi was getting annoyed over the boys foolishness, and growled:  
_**"He isn't human! He's an elf, and they got all that mumbo jumbo Elvish magic. They are an annoying species to fight!"**_  
Naruto laughed, mildly entertained at the Kyuubi's annoyance, and thought:  
'Well, you can't take revenge at him either,' the sweet, sweet irony. There he is right in front of you, and you can do nothing about it.  
The Kyuubi growled:  
_**"No! And that angers me even more!"**_  
Naruto laughed again, and continued on his way home for the evening. But inside of his mind, the Kyuubi was trying to come up with a way to get revenge on the elf...

The next day came, and inside the Hokage tower sat a frustrated Tsunade. Shizune had once again taken away her booze, but she was, as always, prepared for this.  
Tsunade sighed deeply, as she reached for her little emergency sake bottle. She brought it to her lips, and in one quick move, the liquid inside the bottle were almost depleted.  
Shizune entered the room, and stared annoyed at the little bottle in the Hokage's hand. She didn't dwell on it for long however, as she could clearly see that the Hokage was troubled by something.  
"What's the matter this time, Tsunade-sama?" Tsunade looked over at Shizune with a scowl on her face, and replied with venom in her voice:  
"That snake, Orochimaru may be dead, but his little ass licker Kabuto is still out there somewhere. In fact, there has been some suspicious activity on the Sound border..." Shizune understood what her teacher meant, and finished for her:  
"And you think that he has taken over Orochimaru's legacy?" Tsunade nodded in annoyance.  
"Hai, and I would like to have someone take a look at it, but almost everyone in the village is on other missions. This is likely going to be an A-rank mission, so I would like two squads for this job. Team eight is available and Naruto is the only other Shinobi we have available. Sakura is needed at the hospital, and Sai is stuck with that damned bastard Danzo!" She gritted her teeth when she spoke Danzo's name.  
"What about the Assassins? They did promise to help us on missions if needed," Tsunade nodded, and commanded:  
"Get team eight, Naruto and Hawkeye up here! And tell Hawkeye to bring one other Assassin with him as well. They're going on a mission," Shizune stood at attention, and replied:  
"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

Naruto walked happily through the streets of Konoha, and laughed loudly.  
"HAHAHAHA! Finally a mission! Oh this is so great!" As always, he wore his foxy trademark grin, and marched through the streets like he didn't have a care in the world.  
People still gave him angry and dirty looks, while cursing him under their breaths though, but Naruto had long ago learned to ignore that and therefore not caring about that any longer.  
But there were also those who actually liked the kid.  
He skipped up the stairs in the Hokage tower, and barged into Tsunade's office.  
"Yo! Baa-chan!" He skillfully dodged a vase being thrown against him thanks to experience with Tsunade's annoyance over the nickname. He grinned at her like he always does before noticing the others in the room.  
"Hello to you too, Naruto-kun..." Canine said with a tired look in his eyes. The more Naruto looked at him, the more he thought of Shikamaru's bored look.  
Naruto nodded towards him, and smiled at team eight and Hawkeye. Hinata faced away from Naruto, blushing a deep crimson red. Nobody had told her that Naruto would be there. Tsunade looked at Hinata`s face, and sighed.  
'I wonder if putting them together on the same team is such a good idea... But it's my only option.' She sighed again, and faced the people in the room. "Alright, now that everybody is here, we can start. I have received reports that Kabuto has been spotted near the Sound border. I want you to take a look and find out what's going on."  
Naruto pumped his fist in the air, and shouted:  
"Alright! You count on me Tsunade-baa-chan!" Hinata giggled a little bit to herself at his enthusiasm.  
"This is an espionage mission, Naruto, and that's why I'm assigning Hawkeye as the team leader," Naruto crossed his arms in annoyance, and pouted.  
"Why can't I be team leader for once...?" Tsunade started to get really annoyed, and rattled off everything she could come up with about him.  
"Because you are loud, stupid, big mouthed, always using brute force and have no stealth skills whatsoever! That's why you're not the team leader," to prevent a fight to break out between the two, Hawkeye quickly shot in:  
"Do not worry my Lady, we will not let you down," he turned around, and continued: "Let us get going." Naruto looked at Hawkeye`s back and tried to argue.  
"But..."  
"We are leaving!" Hawkeye shot a glare at him, which silenced him.  
Naruto ran over to Hawkeye on their way down the stairs, and asked:  
"Hey Hawkeye, you think I would make a good team leader, right?" Hawkeye looked at Naruto, and answered with a friendly, small smile:  
"Nope, I agree with Tsunade on this one."

The group walked towards the village gate, but Naruto rushed through them.  
"Come on, let`s hurry up!" Hinata smiled a little, and Hawkeye answered calmly:  
"No need to rush when there is no point to it. Just take things slowly for now."  
"But..." Completely ignoring Naruto, Hawkeye spoke to Shino.  
"Normally I would name Canine to be my second in command, but I will be nice and give the title to you." Shino nodded, and they walked past a slightly annoyed Naruto. Hinata came up behind Naruto, and spoke silently:  
"I-I think you w-would make a good team leader, N-Naruto-kun... But as H-Hawkeye-kun said: Just be a little p-patient." Naruto smiled at Hinata's words and replied:  
"Thank you Hinata, you're a really nice person, you know that?. Why can't people be more like you?" Hinata smiled at his compliment, and they walked down the path side by side. With a slightly blushing Hinata.  
"It will take us five days walking to the Sound border," Shino informed. Naruto muttered under his breath:  
"It would take us three days if we just hurried up a little bit..."  
"As I said, Naruto-kun: No need to rush, when we can take things slow. Five days, no more, no less," Hawkeye said firmly.  
Naruto was a little surprised at the firmness in Hawkeye's voice, but quickly got over it, and continued down the path in silence.

Darkness slowly crept across the sky, and Hawkeye signaled the group to stop.  
"We will stop here for the night. Hinata-chan and Kiba-kun, you can start setting up the tents. Naruto-kun and Shino-kun, you can make a fire. Canine, you can catch our dinner."  
Canine nodded once, let out a long straight whistle, and walked into the dark of the forest. Another whistle could be heard, and slowly after, a lot of growling.  
The group sat around the campfire, telling stupid tales of things that happened to them in the village or on missions when Canine came back with a deer over his shoulder.  
"Dinner ready for roasting," Canine said shortly. He slid one of the two combat knives he had out of its leather holster, and started to skin the deer. Slowly but steadily, the meat had been prepared, and eaten mostly in silence.  
When they finished eating, Hawkeye stood up, and said:  
"Go get some sleep, we are heading out at dawn. I will take first watch."  
Everyone nodded, and walked inside their assigned tents. Hawkeye sat down facing the fire, and sighed in a satisfied tone.

Hinata looked at the sleeping form of Naruto. He looked so peaceful when he was asleep. She leaned over him, gazing over his face his handsome face. She couldn't stand it. She just wanted to touch him. She therefore brought her hand to his cheek and caressed it lightly.  
A small smile tugged her lips, she could feel the whiskers on his cheeks. Naruto started to stir, and Hinata shot her hand back, but Naruto slept soundly. Hinata's heart was racing. She thought he would wake up.  
She looked outside the tent, and crawled out. She silently walked over to Hawkeye, who were sitting with a long pipe of oak in his mouth. He tapped it a few times before putting it away, and asked:  
"How are things going with you and Naruto?" Hinata sat down opposite of him, and answered:  
"Still stuttering, still blushing. It's the same problems. But I have to admit that we've gotten a bit closer lately." Hawkeye nodded.  
"Well, just make sure you do not let your feelings interact with your mission. Love is important, but it is also important to separate your personal struggles and your job." Hinata nodded reassuringly. "Go get some sleep, you are going to need it."

The group continued the next day, and instead of walking in a formation, they just walked in an unorganized group. This worried some on the team, and Shino spoke up:  
"Hawkeye, don`t you think it would be best if we walked in a formation instead of walking in a blob?" Without turning around, Hawkeye replied calmly:  
"Nah... Canine has got the surrounding area covered," everyone looked at Canine who was walking in a slow pace with his normal tired eyes at the very back.  
"But... he's right there..." Kiba pointed out, "how can he have the area covered if he's walking right there?"  
"Just relax," Hawkeye said in his normal calm tone. And it was his calmness that made the group tense. Especially Akamaru was tense, something which Kiba noticed.  
"Hey, what's wrong boy?" The only reply Kiba got was a silent growl. Kiba just shrugged it off, and continued to walk.

Five days had passed, and the group were closing in on the Sound border. They were all standing on some branches, and Hawkeye informed them of what to do.  
"Ok, since this is an espionage mission, I do not want you Naruto-kun anywhere near the target. You, Canine and... Hinata-chan shall stay back here as backup, just in case something goes wrong. Kiba-kun and Shino-kun, you are coming with me," everyone nodded, and they all split up.  
Naruto sat on the ground playing with a kunai, slightly annoyed. Hinata strolled over to him and sat down next to him.  
"You need to relax a little, N-Naruto-kun. I know t-that you are eager to show your strength, b-but... I know that you are s-strong, a-and you are also c-caring and kind. And that`s why I...I..." Naruto looked at Hinata curiously waiting for her to continue. Hinata tried to find the right words, but then a sound was heard.

Hawkeye and the others were standing atop of a hill looking down on Kabuto. He was standing a few hundred meters away in a black robe.  
"It seems like he's waiting for someone," Shino said. Hawkeye nodded in agreement.  
"Shouldn't we get a little bit closer? I can't see a thing from here," Kiba complained. Hawkeye smirked at him, and replied:  
"No need, I can see all we need from here," Kiba looked at him in disbelief.  
"You can see from this distance? it's nearly three hundred meters," Hawkeye looked at him with a matter-of-factly look.  
"They do not call me Hawkeye for nothing you know..." He then turned back to Kabuto and stated: "Somebody is coming."  
Out of the forest came three other important looking men in armor, and upon seeing these men, Hawkeye's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Ya i údun?*" (*What the hell)

Hinata and Naruto got up to their feet, and Canine walked over with disbelief written on his face.  
"What the fuck? You`re not supposed to be here."  
Five men in armor came walking out of the forest. They laughed a little before lifting their swords. Canine quickly drew his two combat knives. He countered the first attack, slicing the attackers throat. He then dodged the blow from another, throwing a knife in his back.  
Naruto and Hinata were dodging another, the leader of the group from the looks of it. He jumped at Hinata, who blocked the sword with a kunai. This was no easy job because of the size and the weight of the blade. Naruto came at him from behind, and stabbed the man in the back.  
"Thank you, Naruto-kun," Hinata said while letting out a breath. Canine had finished the two others off, and shouted:  
"We have to go, NOW!" They nodded in agreement, and followed Canine.  
Heading down the road, they ran into Hawkeye, Kiba, Shino and Akamaru.  
"Master, the..."  
"I know!" Hawkeye cut him off. "We have got some vital information for the Hokage, we need to leave!" Canine nodded, and they headed for Konoha.  
Naruto and Hinata had no idea of what was going on, but it seemed that Kiba and Shino knew something. But there was no time for questions now.  
Suddenly, Akamaru stopped and started to growl viciously. Everyone stopped, and saw more of those men right in front of them. The ninja drew several kunai and shuriken, ready to fight. But were quickly held back by Hawkeye.  
"No," he commanded, he then turned to Canine. "Canine, you can take care of this."  
Canine grinned, and his eyes fluttered open. And now, Naruto saw something he had never noticed before: Canine`s eyes were dark yellow.  
He walked in front of the others, and whistled the same tone, he had done the first day. Akamaru started to growl even louder now.  
"What's he doing!" Kiba shouted, and Naruto ran out to help, but were held back by Hawkeye's firm grip.  
"No," Hawkeye said calmly, then he smirked, "now you are going to see why we call him Canine."  
Hinata started to shiver as she saw shadows coming out from the forest...

TBC

Well, I didn't change too much here, but I hope you liked it :)

Lord of Tuft.


	6. Confessions?

CHAPTER 6: Confessions?

Hinata looked at the shadows coming out of the forest. She soon realized that it was a pack of wolfs. They all gathered behind Canine, and growled at the men in front.  
Canine pointed at the men keeping them from escaping. The wolfs immediately jumped at them and attacked. Canine nodded, and the group ran through the men and wolfs who were fighting.  
Naruto dodged a guy who sliced a mean looking dagger at him. Naruto clenched his arm as the blade sliced the surface of his arm. He continued to run away from the ravaging fight going on behind them while clutching his arm. He'd just let the Kyuubi take care of healing his wound.  
"Alright, we need to get away from the area before more hostiles arrive," Hawkeye said over his shoulder.  
"Hai!" They all replied as they ran through the forest.

They sat around a campfire in the night, resting from all the running. The ones who had attacked them, whoever they were, had been very tenacious. Several of them had managed to give chase, and caught up with them, and there had been a few more ambushes along the way. They had been quickly taken care of though. But it had been very tiresome for the group.  
Hawkeye sat on a small boulder, writing a note when Shino spoke:  
"Don`t you think we should put out the fire? We might have killed those who came after us at the moment, but whoever are left can easily spot us here." Hawkeye shook his head, and replied:  
"No, they are not following us anymore," he put his pen into his pocket, and folded the paper he'd been writing on. He then went through some familiar handseals, bit his thumb and pushed it into the ground. When the smoke cleared, they saw an eagle standing in the light of the fire.  
"Need something Hawks?" The eagle asked. Hawkeye nodded and gave him the note.  
"Get this to the Hokage for me, if you would?" The eagle nodded, and took off with the message. Naruto looked at the eagle till it was out of sight, and then turned to Hawkeye.  
"Who were those guys?" Hawkeye were about to answer, but Canine cut him off:  
"Nr. 1 enemy of the assassins: The Templars. `Warriors of God´, soldiers of the church. Long story short... Bad guys. They are trying to get world domination, you know, the same old cliché. They're really not very much into the entire religious thing anymore." Hawkeye nodded, and continued:  
"Correct, and they apparently just made an alliance with Kabuto," he sighed, and his normally calm face were dead serious. That was something that worried Naruto for Hawkeye usually had a more relaxed expression.  
"What's wrong? What happened?" Hawkeye looked at Naruto and sighed.

_FLASHBACK*_

"Ya i údun!" Hawkeye`s eyes widened. "Oh, this is not good!"  
Kabuto looked up at their position, and Hawkeye's eyes widened. He looked away, and turned around, only to face Kabuto standing behind them. How the hell he got behind them so fast was beyond him. He must've teleported or something.  
Hawkeye, Kiba and Shino drew their weapons and pointed them towards Kabuto. Hawkeye narrowed his eyes and said:  
"I remember you... You are Orochimaru's ass kisser." Kabuto smiled mockingly, but you could clearly see his eyebrow twitch.  
"I must thank you, if you hadn`t killed Orochimaru-sama, I could never have achieved all of his soldiers and experiments. I`ve got all of his powers now!"  
"What are you up to, freak?" Kiba growled menacingly. Kabuto smirked at Kiba.  
"If you absolutely need to know, in three years from now, I will launch an attack on the Hidden Leaf. And I will kill you all."  
"WHAT?" Kiba screamed.  
"That`s why I made the alliance with the Assassins little friends here. Once they found out you were hiding in the village, they were quite eager to assist me. After all, it's a win-win situation for us to team up," he finished with an evil smirk. Shino looked at Kabuto with a wondering expression (though you couldn't really see it behind the glasses).  
"And you are telling us this, why?"  
"Because, it wouldn't be fun if you didn't know about it. It would be far too easy that way. Now you're getting the chance to prepare for the oncoming battle. It's going to be so much fun," he gazed back on Hawkeye, and continued: "I'm also letting you go so you can report this to your Hokage. Oh, and give my regards to Naruto-kun, tell him I'm looking forward to seeing him again. I really need to pay him back for last time."  
Kabuto started walking away, but then he spoke again: "And just the fun of it, I'm sending some men to chase you for a while. don't want to make the escape too easy either. Bye-bye."

_FLASHBACK*_

"So, I just sent a message to Hokage-sama about the invasion to come," Canine looked at Hawkeye, and asked:_  
_"Do you really believe that he won't attack before three years have passed? Maybe he's trying to fool us," Hawkeye shook his head._  
_"No, I doubt it. I could not see any deceit in his eyes. He will not attack before three years have passed. I am certain of it." Naruto clenched his fists in anger._  
_"That damn bastard, Kabuto... When we finally had gotten rid of Orochimaru, that bastard had to take his place! I'm going to kill him, and get Sasuke back! No matter what!"  
Hinata looked at Naruto with concern, and tried to calm him down in a soft voice. And amazingly, she did it without stuttering. Hawkeye Looked at the scene in front of him and smiled weakly._  
_`She is making progress... she is more relaxed around him now.´ His smile soon faded, as he remembered something. He just couldn't stop thinking that there was something about Naruto he just couldn't seem to put his finger on. Whatever it was, it worried him... He eyed the boy and came over the cut in Naruto`s jacket sleeve, but shrugged it off._  
_Kiba looked at Canine, he wondered about what he had done earlier that day, and decided to ask._  
_"What happened back there, Canine? What did you do?" Canine looked at Kiba, and saw that everyone except Hawkeye were looking at him. He sighed and answered:_  
_"Instead of using the summoning Jutsu, I always have a pack of wolfs following me where ever I go. They are close enough to help me when I need it, and far enough away as not to get noticed by people," Kiba nodded._  
_"That explains why Akamaru was so tense on the way here..." Akamaru whined in response, and Canine nodded._  
_"Yes, he probably sensed them nearby and it's also why we didn't need to move in a formation. The wolfs had the area around us covered. I can call upon them when I need them, and they come." Naruto were a little confused._  
_"What, do you like talk to the wolfs, or something?" Canine thought for a few seconds, and answered slowly:_  
_"Ahh... No... Not really... It's a little hard to explain. I'm pretty much from the same line as the Inuzuka clan here in the Leaf, they got the same ability as me. We're not talking to the canines, we just... feel, what the other one feels." Kiba nodded._  
_"Exactly, I don't understand what Akamaru is saying, I just feel what he means."_  
_"It`s the same thing for the canines as well. They feel what we feel, there is no need to tell them in words what to do. They just... Do it." Canine finished with a slight amount of uncertainty etched in his voice, "that's the best explanation I've got."_  
_Everyone took in what they had been told, and a few seconds later two wolfs came out of the forest, and laid down on each of Canine's sides. He looked at the wolf to his left, and said:_  
_"You can do it as well," Naruto looked at the finger pointing at him, then at Canine's serious face._  
_"What, me? No-no-no-no, I can't do that," Canine nodded to the wolf on his left, and said:_  
_"He says you can do it," Naruto was a little baffled at these news. If he has the same ability, why hadn't he noticed it before with Akamaru? Or any other dog for that matter._  
_"No, you've got it all wrong. I can't do that," Canine looked a little annoyed, and nodded to his left again and asked:_  
_"What's his name?" _  
_"How am I supposed to know that?" Naruto shouted._  
_"What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you look at him?" Naruto looked into the yellow eyes of the wolf. It felt like they looked into his very soul. His eyes suddenly widened._  
_"His name is Ragg..." Canine nodded._  
_"That is correct..." Shino, Hawkeye, Kiba and Hinata looked at Naruto with surprised expressions on their faces. _  
_`Who is this kid..?´ Hawkeye thought with astonishment. He was just getting more and more curious about this boy.

They were walking home in a slow pace. The exact same pace they had used when they left the village, if not even slower than that... To everyone's surprise, Naruto didn't nag about the speed they were going at. But what surprised them even more -especially Hinata- was that Naruto was in fact falling behind, and he looked exhausted. Hinata started to worry, she had never seen him like this before. And she had been around him a lot!_  
_She turned around towards him and asked with a concerned voice:_  
_"N-Naruto-kun? Are you all right?"  
Naruto shuffled tiredly towards them, looking like he would fall down and collapse any minute now._  
_"I-I`m not f-feeling to-to g-good..." He stuttered out before falling backwards and landing on his back._  
_"NARUTO-KUN!" Hinata screamed. Hawkeye turned around and saw a collapsed Naruto. He ran over to him and Hinata. Hinata was on the verge of tears, looking down on her secret crush. _  
_"What's wrong?" Hawkeye asked quickly. Naruto weakly shook his head._  
_"I do-don`t know, but my-my ins-insides are b-burning..." he replied with a loud groan. Hawkeye scanned his body, and noticed the slash on his left arm. He ripped the sleeve off, and saw a bad looking wound. How did he not notice that?_  
_"When did you get that cut?" Hawkeye asked. _  
_"Back when Canine summoned the wolfs..." He replied his voice barely a whisper now._  
_"What!" Hawkeye almost shouted. "That is four days ago..." He were lost in thought for a second before continuing. "That wound is poisoned, you should have died days ago..." `Is this kid really a human! ´ He thought before Naruto started to mumble incoherently._  
_"NARUTO!" Hinata screamed. "PLEASE, DON`T DIE! I... I LOVE YOU!" Everyone looked at Hinata. Did she really say that..? Naruto's eyes rolled back in his skull, and they slowly closed. Hinata let her tears flow freely now, and they dripped down onto Naruto's face.

TBC

Well, I'll just leave this cliffhanger here :) Please give me a review for my efforts, my friends.

Lord of Tuft.


	7. Back in the hospital

CHAPTER 7: Back in the hospital

Naruto found himself lying on the floor. It was cool and relaxing, but the only thing that bothered him was that he didn't know where he were.  
He sat up, and looked around the room. It was dark and very familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. His head was throbbing like crazy, and that made it harder to think.  
He looked behind himself, and faced a large gate. He quickly realized that he was inside his of his own mind again for the umpteenth time. But something was different... he looked to the ground, and found it completely dry. Naruto brought his right hand to his head and groaned:  
"Ugh, what happened..?"  
_**"You were poisoned, that's what happened." **_A low growling voice replied. Naruto narrowed his eyes at the big gate.  
"Kyuubi?" He moved closer to the gate so he could see better. He stood up to the bars now, but he couldn't see the big fox who usually lay there. "Kyuubi?" Naruto asked again, and his only reply was a low growl.  
Naruto focused his eyes at a small form in one of the corners. Confused he asked again:  
"Kyuubi, is that you?" The form came slowly out of the shadows, and a small fox with nine tails sat down, looking up at Naruto with an annoyed, almost cute look.  
Naruto looked at the fox with a baffled look, but then a small smirk tugged his lips, and he immediately burst out into a wild laughing fit. The Kyuubi looked even more annoyed now, and barked out:  
_**"Hey, what's so funny!"**_ Clenching his stomach, Naruto looked at the Kyuubi with tears in his eyes, pointing his index finger at him panting out:  
"You`re-you`re-you`re so cuuuuuuuute." He then shot his head back laughing again, almost falling onto his back. The pain in his head was just a numb pain now, and he laughed harder and harder. This was just priceless.  
The Kyuubi's eye started to twitch, and he roared angrily at Naruto with a deeper and more ferocious growl than normal:  
_**"Now you listen here brat! It's partially because of me that you're still alive, so show some damn respect! Normally I would have let you die, but since I'm locked up inside you, that would mean I would die to. But if you don't listen to me, I will make your life even more miserable than before!"  
**_Naruto immediately stood at attention, containing his lafter. The fox sighed, and continued to talk, _**"you`re going to wake up soon, so I'll just lay back down and rest."**_ He turned his back at Naruto, and walked away, but he stopped when Naruto called after him.  
"Wait, I need to ask you something." The fox sighed, and gave Naruto a slight nod, "what happened?" He asked again. The Kyuubi sighed and once again said:  
_**"As I told you a minute ago, you were poisoned." **_He laid down on the ground, and closed his eyes. Naruto looked at him for a moment before asking another question.  
"You said that it was partially because of you that I'm still alive. What did you mean about that?" The Kyuubi opened his left eye slightly, and replied:  
_**"You'll see when you wake up." **_Naruto let the bad answer slide, and went over to hisnext question.__  
"How come, I can understand canines?" The Kyuubi's ears twitched. He lifted his head with a smirk and answered:  
_**"I was hoping you would ask about that... You can understand them because of me kit. It's that simple." **_  
"But if it's because of you, then why haven't I noticed it before? I mean, I've been a lot around Akamaru and other dogs without noticing." The Kyuubi laughed, and replied:  
_**"I was especially hoping you would ask about that." **_The Kyuubi stood up and walked over to the bars, smirking smugly at Naruto. He nodded at the seal placed up high on the cage, and said: _**"The reason you haven't noticed is because the seal haven't started weakening until now." **_Naruto's eyes shot up, and he let out a weak:  
"What?" The Kyuubi smirked even wider now, and continued:  
_**"The seal is weakening, which is why you can now understand canines, and when I get my full strength back... I will break free... and kill you all..."**_  
"The hell you will fur ball!" Naruto shot back, "not if Tsunade-Baa-chan or Ero-sennin can do something about it!"  
_**"Hahahahaha! Good luck kit..." **_The Kyuubi turned around and walked back into the shadows again. _**"You're gonna need it..."**_

The darkness slowly faded, and slowly Naruto opened his aching eyes. Actually, his entire body ached. His eyesight slowly returned from blurry to normal again, so he gazed over the room he was in for a while.  
`I guess I`m back in the hospital... again...´ He thought as he tried to move his right arm, but as he did, he noticed a slight pressure on the back of his hand. He gazed upon his hand, and saw an object resting there. Still a little dazed from the poison, it took a few seconds before he found out that the object on top of his hand, was in fact another person's hand.  
He followed the length of this persons arm up to its source, and saw a head resting in the bed. In his temporary daze, it took a few seconds before recognizing the person in the bed.  
"Hi- Hinata..?" Hinata stirred a little at the sound before lifting her head. Opening her left eye, she whispered:  
"N-Naruto-kun..?" Her eyes shot up, and she ran to the door shouting: "He's awake!" She immediately ran back towards him, jumped at him and caught him in a fierce hug, pressing her face in his neck, saying in a muffled voice: "I'm so glad you're okay."  
Not long after, Kiba, Shino, Tsunade, Jiraya and Hawkeye came walking into the room. Upon seeing the hugging couple in front of them, Kiba lightly nudged Shino in the side with his elbow smirking. Everyone else were just smiling at them. Hinata quickly released Naruto with a light blush when she noticed the other people in the room.  
Tsunade walked over to Naruto, and started to examine him, Jiraya walked over to Naruto, and patted him on the shoulder.  
"Good to see you pulled it out okay kid... you alright?" Naruto just gave him a nod as an answer.  
"Yeah! Way to go pal!" Kiba barked  
"Indeed, it's good to see you awake Naruto. You were pretty beaten up." Shino said.  
Tsunade finished her checkup on Naruto and said:  
"You were really lucky this time Naruto... If it hadn`t been for Hinata, you would have been dead," Naruto looked up at Tsunade.  
"What do ya mean baa-chan? Hinata saved me?" Tsunade nodded with a slight smirk.  
"Yup, thanks to Hinata's medical ninjutsu, the group got you back here alive." Naruto looked at a blushing, fidgeting Hinata.  
"I didn't know you knew how to perform medical ninjutsu..." Hinata blushed an even deeper crimson red, and answered quietly:  
"I-eh, when you were gone w-with Jiraya-s-sama, I asked Sakura-chan if-if she could t-teach me some..." Inside of her mind, Hinata cursed herself for that damn stutter. It would always come when she really didn`t need it. During Naruto`s training with the toad sage, she had managed to get rid of that stutter around everyone. Around her father as well, who in fact had started to give her more attention, and was now much more friendly towards her... Just like a real father should be. But when Naruto came back, the stutter came back as well. Everyone had noticed it, including her father who's never been oblivious to his daughter's feelings towards the blonde. He's never done anything to stop it... but he hasn't done anything to make that love flourish either.  
Naruto made a friendly laugh, and said:  
"You know, you just never cease to amaze me Hinata-chan," Hinata smiled at his comment, but then realized what he said to her.  
`Did he just call me... chan?´ Now Hinata smiled even wider. Naruto brought his right hand to his head, rubbing it groaning:  
"Man, my head hurts like hell..." Tsunade nodded, and replied:  
"I'm not surprised... that was a very severe poison you had in you, so it's a wonder you're not dead. Even with your amazing healing ability."  
Hawkeye stood in the back of the room, staring at Naruto with a thoughtful look and then at Hinata. After a few seconds he asked:  
"Naruto-kun, what is the last thing you remember from the mission..?" Everyone turned towards Hawkeye, Hinata with wide eyes. Naruto shook his head, and said:  
"Ehh, when... we were talking with Canine... I think... Everything after that is just a blurry image." Hinata lowered her head, with her body trembling, it almost looked like she was on the verge of tears. But can you blame her? "Wait," Naruto said as he looked at Hinata with a sad look, but then shook his head again and let out a low: "No..."  
Hinata stood up, and slowly left the room with a low:  
"E-e-e-excuse m-me..." Kiba and Shino also walked out of the room, trying to catch up to Hinata. Naruto looked down into his lap thinking:  
`She looked so sad... Why do I feel so guilty? For some reason, it feels like I'm the source of her pain...´ Tsunade just looked sadly at Naruto, and said:  
"Ehh... Just get some rest Naruto..." And then walked away, Hawkeye followed after a moment of thinking. __  
Tsunade had just entered the Hokage office when Hawkeye came in.  
"I need to talk to you, Hokage-sama," Hawkeye said in a serious tone. Tsunade nodded and indicated that he could take a seat and said:  
"I've been meaning to talk to you myself actually. This new threat that's been revealed will be quite a handful, so I will need you to take care of some special training and that sort of stuff among the Shinobi. You know the enemy best after all." Hawkeye nodded and said:  
"That is exactly what I am here to discuss," Tsunade eyed him while shifting her position in her chair. "I want to take some of your Shinobi of my own choice, and train them as Assassins." Tsunade smiled.  
"Good, that's going to be a good asset to Konoha."  
"However," Hawkeye interrupted, "those I train as Assassins will belong to me and the rest of the Assassins Order. They will no longer be Shinobi of Konoha, but Assassins under _my_ command," Hawkeye said seriously putting pressure on the `my´.  
Tsunade leaned back in her chair with a very thoughtful expression, "but," Hawkeye continued, "as we bargained some months ago, they will also be at your disposal as you please, as long as I do not have any jobs for them myself. Since we have a guild here in the village, I will have them stationed here so they will not have to leave all their friends and family. But as I said, they will primarily take orders from me."  
Tsunade didn't say anything as she continued to eye Hawkeye with a continued thoughtful expression. Hawkeye got back to his feet and started walking to the door.  
"Think over my proposal." As he opened the door he turned around and said: "Oh, and I want to train Naruto personally... but not as an Assassin, only as a Shinobi. I doubt he has what it takes to become an Assassin."  
Hawkeye walked down the corridor in the Hokage mansion in deep thought.  
`I really need to find out what it is that is nagging me about Naruto... Maybe Hinata can help a bit...´ A light smile tugged his lips. `Yeah... the next three years are going be really interesting. I have got a few things in mind for Naruto-kun...´

TBC

I didn't change much in this chapter as I was quite happy about it. Please review :)

Lord of Tuft.


	8. Revelations

CHAPTER 8: Revelations

Inside the slowly darkening forest outside Konoha, a shy Kunoichi sat curled under a tree, crying silently. After just realizing that Naruto didn't remember her sudden confession, Hinata ran out in the forest to be alone. Something which she really needed right now.  
`It's not fair!´ She thought. `I spent so much time building up courage to confess, and it just slipped out. There's no way I can do it again!´  
Her train of thought was interrupted as she heard movements in the bushes. Her head snapped up as she noticed. She considering running away from whoever it was. But before she could even get to her feet, a person came walking towards her. Her eyes widened when she saw who that person was.  
"N-Naruto-kun?" Naruto smiled sadly at her as he sat down beside her.  
"Hey Hinata-chan..."  
"W-what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in the h-hospital?" Naruto shrugged at her question in a careless manner.  
"Nah, I sneaked out, besides, I'm a fast healer." He paused as he looked at her red face. "I wanted to see you..." He said in a kind and caring voice. Hinata swallowed loudly as she stuttered:  
"Y-y-you d-did?" Naruto nodded, never breaking eyesight with her white orbs.  
"I wasn't sure what I was missing, but when everyone had left, I remembered..."  
"Remembered what?" Hinata whispered hopefully. Naruto leaned slowly towards her face as he whispered back:  
"What you told me before I fainted." Hinata's eyes widened as their lips met, but she closed them soon after, leaning into the kiss.  
She had never felt this good before, she was kissing the man of her dreams, she felt happier than ever before. She felt... She felt nothing... She broke the kiss, and looked into Naruto's beautiful, blue eyes.  
"What's wrong?" He asked curiously. A single tear rolled down Hinata's face as she cupped his cheek.  
"You're not real..."

Hinata lifted her head up from between her knees, and looked sadly at the surrounding forest.  
"Just another dream... Just a dream..."

Hawkeye walked slowly into the meeting room in the Assassins Guild, and he was met with the gaze of seventeen Assassins. They were mostly sitting on the edge of the big round table in the middle of the room, and those who wasn't, was leaning against the surrounding wall.  
Hawkeye pulled his hood back as Psycho said:  
"We heard what happened from Canine... What are we going to do now?" Hawkeye sighed and pulled a hand through his long brown hair. His normally lively eyes were tired and thoughtful.  
"The situation is indeed unfortunate... But we will have go with it for now." Hawkeye turned to face all the Assassins. "I just requested from the Hokage to recruit Assassins from the village, and if I am right, she will comply to my wish, she does not really have any other choice considering the situation..."  
He walked slowly across the floor in the dim room with a thoughtful look as he continued.  
"For now, I will pay some attention to Naruto, there is something about him that has been bothering me lately. I did not really pay much attention to it when I first met him, but we might have to do something about it."  
"And what about us, master? What do you want us to do?" One of the Assassins asked.  
"Well, we are mostly ready for what is to come, but for the time being, Altaïr, you will go and summon all the others we have in the area. We will need everyone for this." Altaïr nodded and walked out of the room.  
Hawkeye went silent for a moment, and there wasn't a single sound in the meeting room. He then nodded, more to himself than to the others, as if he had agreed on something in his head.  
"Alright, that is all. I have a few things to take care of. You all know what to do while we wait," he pulled the onyx colored hood back on, and marched out of the room.  
Things were now set in motion. It could finally begin...

A week passed, and Naruto was finally released from the dreadful hospital for the umpteenth time. He marched out of the hospital door and took a deep inhale of the fresh air, and then he let out a loud sigh of content. What a beautiful day.  
"One week without proper air, one week without proper training and one freaking week without proper ramen!" He exclaimed loudly and started to march towards his favorite dining place.  
Nearby, two Kunoichi were walking together. Sakura had the day off from the hospital, and had decided to help Hinata bring some documents from her clan to the Hokage.  
"So he doesn't remember anything?" Said Sakura in a disbelieving voice. Hinata gave her a small nod as an answer.  
"But it's okay. I'm sure another opportunity will come. I will tell him one day, but I must get more courage before that," Sakura shook her head.  
"You've got to be more aggressive Hinata-chan," Hinata looked at Sakura, she knew were this was going, but she had to ask anyway.  
"W-what do y-you mean Sakura-chan?"  
"I mean, Hinata, you've got to do something more... Drastic. Jump him or something like that..." Hinata shook her head.  
"No, Lover gave me an advice like that once, and I know better to take an advice from him. No offence Sakura-chan, but I want to take it at my speed." Sakura nodded and gave her friend a small, understanding smile.  
"Sure, sorry Hinata-chan. But seriously, you could win him over if you just used the magic of your big breasts. Seriously, how did you get them so big?"  
Hinata was happy she had the stack of papers covering her chest, for that only meant that she didn't have to cover them with her hands.  
"Why can't people just leave my chest alone?" Shrieked a frustrated Hinata, but before she could do anything else, she bumped into somebody while rounding a corner.  
"I'm so sorry, I wasn't..." She started, but she stopped short when she saw Naruto smiling brightly at her.  
"Don't worry about it Hinata-chan, I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going myself." He picked up the papers Hinata had dropped, and offered her a hand. Blushing slightly, Hinata took his hand and were dragged off the ground.  
"On your way to Ichiraku, Naruto?" Said a smirking Sakura. Naruto handed the papers to Hinata as he smiled brightly at Sakura.  
"You know it, I haven't had ramen in a full week!" Sakura nodded.  
"We're on our way to the Hokage with some papers, why don't you come with us, and afterwards we'll all go to Ichiraku," Hinata glanced over at Sakura. She gave her a look that said: `You can thank me later.´  
"Sure!" The boy exclaimed.

The three of them walked side by side down the busy streets of Konoha, chatting happily about the days at the academy, and how it had changed so much the past few years. In other words, it was a perfectly normal conversation, and of course, a blushing and slightly smiling Hinata.  
She had gotten over what happened at the hospital the past week, and she was just happy to walk beside Naruto for a while. She was just happy to see him smile as brightly as ever.  
Over the years, Hinata had somehow worked up the ability to understand Naruto better than anyone. She could see in his eyes if he was upset or sad, or just genuinely happy. But, unknown to her, in his mind, Naruto was still contemplating on what he might have forgotten. Still trying to figure out what made her look so hurt, leaving her eyes full of sadness.  
He would steal occasional glances at Hinata, only to see her normal timid -and seemingly- happy self. He knew he had it in the back of his head somewhere, but he just couldn't drag the damn memory out. And the Kyuubi wasn't much help either. Damn fur ball...  
"Naruto! Are you listening?" He snapped out of his train of thoughts by the sudden outburst from Sakura. And as he always do in these situations, he put a hand behind his head smiling sheepishly.  
"He he, sorry Sakura-chan," she huffed before continuing her rabble about how annoying Ino is. He heard a small giggle escape Hinata's lips, and turned his head around to face her. She averted his gaze, muttering out a quiet "Sorry," but Naruto just nudged her shoulder playfully, while smiling at her as a sign to say "Don't worry." He then went back to his original thoughts.  
She didn't show it, but Hinata knew he was bothered by something. Though she didn't know what.

As they approached the Hokage's office, they saw two other persons exit the front gate: Shikamaru and Hawkeye. The group stopped and watched the two of them talking to each other, Shikamaru had -surprisingly- a more awake and serious expression written on his face during their conversation. But before they could think more about it, they shook hands and parted.  
"Hey, Shikamaru!" Naruto called out when he came closer to them. He looked up from the ground, and met up with his friends.  
"Yo," he greeted. "What`s up?"  
"What were you guys talking about?" Naruto asked, nodding over to the entrance of the Hokage tower. Shikamaru started to scratch the back of his head and answered:  
"Me and Hawkeye was having a meeting with the Lady Hokage... I just agreed on joining the Assassins Order. It's all really bothersome when I think about it..." Sakura, Hinata and Naruto were shocked by this to say the least.  
"What?" They all exclaimed nearly at the same time. Shikamaru sighed.  
"Apparently, they wanted to recruit the best ninja suitable as an Assassin. And they chose me... I'm going to meet up with them tonight to discuss some matters." He then suddenly remembered something, " that reminds me, Naruto, Hawkeye were looking for you." Naruto's eyes immediately lit up.  
"Really? Why?" Shikamaru shook his head.  
"I don't know, but I think it was important," Naruto started to contemplate on what to do, but then he shrugged.  
"Ah, he can wait. Ramen first!"  
"But N-Naruto-kun, it might be really important," Hinata stuttered.  
"Don`t worry, he can wait Hinata-chan, ramen can't. Come on, let's deliver these papers and get some ramen!" He then grabbed Hinata's hand, and dragged her into the Hokage's office, and honestly, Hinata couldn't be any happier.

After the clan papers had been delivered, Sakura, Hinata and Naruto headed for Ichiraku. Shikamaru left them, mumbling something about them being to bothersome, and went off to watch clouds somewhere. It was a nice day after all.  
When the group arrived at Ichiraku, there was only one other customer.  
"I thought I would find you here, Naruto-kun. I have been looking for you." Hawkeye said with a smile. Naruto smiled sheepishly back at him.  
"Well, I thought I should get some ramen before I went to see you."  
"Oh, so you knew I was looking for you?" Hawkeye replied, "and still you went here instead."  
"We w-were just a little h-hungry, Hawkeye-kun," said Hinata in a timid voice in an attempt to cover for Naruto. Hawkeye smiled at her, and said:  
"I understand, Hinata-chan, but this is something I just cannot postpone. I am quite busy nowadays."  
"Well, let me just get some ramen, and then we're ready to go!" Naruto said as he tried to order some ramen. But he was stopped short as Hawkeye grabbed his jacket, and dragged him out of the ramen stand.  
"I am sorry, mellon nin*, but that will have to wait till later." (*My friend) Sakura and Hinata watched as Naruto got dragged away, but then Hawkeye turned around, and said:  
"I will most likely need to talk to you to Hinata-chan, but we can do that later," he smiled as he continued to drag Naruto away.  
Hinata and Sakura looked at each other, shrugged and turned around to order some ramen. It would be a waste to leave when they had just arrived.

When Hawkeye and Naruto arrived at training field 3, Hawkeye had a more serious expression than normal written on his face.  
So, what did you want to see me for?" Naruto asked, "do you want to train me as an Assassin?" It was quite obvious that Naruto wanted that. If there was any chance to get stronger, Naruto would definitely take it. But the answer he received, disappointed him.  
"No," Hawkeye stated as bluntly as possible. Naruto was visibly disappointed.  
"Why not?" Hawkeye now stood towering right in front of Naruto.  
"To put it bluntly, you are too loud, too straight forward and too damn proud to become an Assassin. Besides, you have another dream do you not? You wish to be Hokage one day, am I right?" Naruto was a little taken back by how uncharacteristic Hawkeye was, but nodded to his question.  
Hawkeye made a confirming nod, "if you became an Assassin, you would have to give up on that dream, because you would not be serving the village, you would serve me." Naruto sighed and nodded, he knew better than to give up on his lifelong dream. That was something he wouldn't do for anything.  
"Besides," Hawkeye continued, "I doubt that you can understand the truth..." Naruto was a little confused, so he asked:  
"What is the truth then?" Hawkeye studied Naruto for a few seconds before answering  
"We place faith in ourselves, we see the world for what it _truly_ is."  
"Then, what is the world?" Naruto was still as confused as ever.  
"An illusion, one which we can either submit to, as most humans do, or we can transcend to it."  
"And what does it mean to... Transcend?" Long, weird words had never exactly been Naruto's strong side...  
"To recognize that nothing is true, and everything is permitted. That laws rise not through divinity and fate, but through the choices of humans. Our Creed does not command us just to be free, but to be wise." Naruto was quiet for a few seconds.  
"I still don't understand..." Hawkeye smiled, and made a short laugh.  
"I thought as much, but I think you will understand what I meant in time. But this is not what I wanted to talk to you about."  
"What is it then?" Naruto asked curiously. Hawkeye pointed two fingers at Naruto.  
"I need to confirm something..." And as he said that, he placed two fingers on Naruto's forehead.

It`s not an easy job to enter someone's mind. It depends on how their mind works, a rabbit is easy though. The thoughts of a rabbit is mostly just going up and down, carrots and salads. A dog on the other hand, is much, much more difficult. They can have a thousand thoughts at the same time due to their curious nature.  
It`s pretty much the same situation with humans as with dogs, the only difference is that humans don't really know what they are thinking about. This can prove a real headache for those who need to go inside somebody's head.  
But in the case of Naruto, it was surprisingly easy. Now, normally you would think it's because he's... Well, an idiot... But that`s not it. For some reason, Naruto's thoughts were pretty much collected, and he was actually quite aware of his thoughts. But this didn't bother Hawkeye. There was only one thing he wanted to find out.

Naruto found himself standing in front of the great gate that was keeping the Kyuubi locked up, and how he got here, he didn't know.  
_**"What are you doing here brat?"**_ The Kyuubi growled.  
"I don't know..." The Kyuubi had gotten considerably bigger the past week, it was almost back to its normal size again. That was a bit sad, actually. He was really cute in his chibi form.  
Before anything else could be said, a loud laughter could be heard from behind Naruto.  
_**"You!" **_The Kyuubi roared.  
"I thought you seemed familiar, Naruto-kun, but I really did not expect this. Mae govannen* Kyuubi," (*Well met) Hawkeye said with a gleeful smirk.  
_**"I`m going to rip you limb from limb you pointy eared bastard!" **_The Kyuubi roared in anger.  
"Oh, I am sure you will... This is really low, Kyuubi," Hawkeye stated, "you got defeated by _humans_, and on top of that, you got yourself sealed into a _human_. No offense Naruto-kun."  
"None... Taken?" The way Hawkeye said it made it sound like a bad thing.  
Hawkeye were staring at the seal put over the cage with searching eyes, while the Kyuubi was shouting off how many ways he was going to kill them. He then smiled and said:  
"Well, I have found out what I needed to," he formed a handsign and said: "Release," then he disappeared in a flicker.

Hawkeye was kneeling in front of Naruto, who was lying unconscious on the ground. He lifted Naruto's jacket and mesh shirt, waved a hand over his stomach and slowly, a seal appeared. Hawkeye studied it with a serious gaze.  
`As I suspected,´ he thought, `the seal is weakening...´ He gently dragged a finger on top of the seal. `And somebody has meddled with it, It is beyond repair...´ He scratched his lightly bearded chin, thinking: `This is getting more and more difficult...´ A light smile tugged his lips. `Or, maybe it might get more interesting this way...´  
A light groan snapped Hawkeye out of his thoughts. Slowly, Naruto opened his eyes.  
"Welcome back," said a smiling Hawkeye. He received a small smile in return. "Now, I have some bad news," Hawkeye continued, "the seal on your stomach is weakening, and it is beyond repairs"  
"Then, what do we do?" Naruto asked with a concerned look, but Hawkeye just shook his head.  
"There is nothing we can do about it, you will have to do your best to control it, and when it breaks we must do what we can to stop the Kyuubi..." Naruto sighed, if he lost control of the Kyuubi, it might destroy the village he loves so much. It might kill the people he care about. And people would hate him even more if it happens...  
"But for the time being," Hawkeye continued, "I will be the one responsible for your training." Naruto's head snapped up. "I will see you here tomorrow at noon." Hawkeye started to walk away, but he stopped when Naruto said:  
"What happened at our last mission? What is it that I'm forgetting?" Hawkeye turned around to see a serious Naruto. He knew he would ask him about that... He sighed and asked Naruto:  
"Have you ever woken up one morning, unable to remember your dream?" Naruto was surprised by the sudden question.  
"Uh, yes. But that's not what I..."  
"Almost every time you fall asleep," Hawkeye interrupted, "you experience a dream. But most of the time when you wake up, you cannot remember it, do you know why?"  
"What's with all these questions? That's not what I asked about!" Naruto was obviously getting impatient. "Something happened that time, and it has something to do with Hinata!"  
"Questions are not necessarily there to be answered, but possibly to inspire thinking. My point is, Naruto, a lost memory is like a lost dream, you have to figure it out yourself. It is not possible for others to tell you what it is."  
"But how am I supposed to do that?" He shouted  
"If you want to remember something you have forgotten, you must not think about it. It will come back to you in time, all you need is to experience something to remind you about it. That is all the help I am giving you, now go. You need to rest up till tomorrow." Naruto nodded.  
"Yes... Sensei..." He turned around, and started to head back to the village.  
Hawkeye watched him as Naruto disappeared out of sight.  
`Ah, ignorance is bliss...´ He thought, `he has indeed the potential to become a great leader one day, but...´ He smirked while he made a short, quiet laugh. `It has only just begun. In three years, you will understand the truth Naruto-kun.´

TBC

Things are starting to build up now, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, so please give me a review :) I`m not the best romance writer, so if the story isn`t up to your expectations, then I`m sorry, I`m doing my best.

So please review, because I love them, and please tell me if there is something you think I can improve I can improve

Lord of Tuft.


	9. Training

CHAPTER 9: Training

Naruto sat on the edge of his bed, clutching his head. He was desperately trying to remember what had happened on that mission. It was all in vain though, but as he sat there he remembered what Hawkeye had told him earlier that day. `The best way to remember something is not to think about it.´ It didn't make much sense to Naruto, but Hawkeye was a smart guy, and he had been alive for God knows how long, so naturally he would know a few things about reality.  
Naruto agreed to stop thinking about the matter for the time being and try to finally get some sleep. He needs to be ready for whatever Hawkeye has to throw at him tomorrow. And as his eyes closed, he drifted into a deep sleep. Dreaming about Hinata's confession.

Right after Hawkeye's conversation with Naruto, he had gone to find Hinata. They had pretty much the same conversation, where Hawkeye told her he would be the one responsible for hers and Naruto's training. She was happy about this for two reasons. This was a perfect chance to get closer to Naruto, but more importantly she could get much stronger, and perhaps finally earn the respect of her father when it came to terms of strength.  
The young Kunoichi was now waiting for Naruto and Hawkeye to arrive at training field 3 in mild anticipation. She was drumming her fingertips lightly on her stomach in an attempt to pass the time, but she didn't need to wait very long before Naruto arrived.  
"Hey Hinata-chan, did Hawkeye tell you to meet him here as well?" The shy Kunoichi nodded, and replied:  
"Hai, apparently he w-wants to make us ready for the war against K-Kabuto and the Templars," Naruto nodded in agreement.  
"Yeah, I saw quite a few Assassins talking to other groups of Shinobi on my way here."  
"Well, it`s only n-natural. They have the most experience against Templars after all. They know better than a-anyone how they operate."  
Naruto walked over to Hinata, and they stood there in silence. Hinata looked over at Naruto and asked:  
"So, um... how are you Naruto-kun?" Naruto turned to face Hinata, and gave her an optimistic answer.  
"Oh, I'm great. I had a nice dream yesterday, but I can't really remember what it was, and after my talk with Hawkeye yesterday, that kinda annoys me," Naruto paused for a second before returning her question, "and how are you?"  
"Ano, I'm fine too," she smiled a little before continuing, "a little excited for the training."  
"I am glad to hear that," the two Shinobi turned around, and saw Hawkeye giving them his normal friendly smile. "I hope you are ready for today."  
"Of course we are sensei," Naruto replied enthusiastically. Hawkeye waved his hand.  
"Ah, do not bother with `sensei´, just say Hawkeye. Now, as I said, I am going to be responsible training the two of you. The reason I am training you myself is because I think that out of everyone in the village, you two are the most promising. I am going to forge you into real Shinobi who can withstand even the Templar army," he paused for a bit and then he added: "At least that is what I will try to do."  
"And that's why there are Assassins assigned to squads of Shinobi all around the village?" Hinata said.  
"Yes," Hawkeye nodded, "that is correct. All of my men have experience against the Templars, and are going to prepare the Shinobi of Konoha for what is to come. I however, will go a little deeper with you two. I will expect you to do your very best the next three years."

The group of three moved to the middle of the field. It was a large open area with no cover, no trees or anything at all for that matter. Hawkeye was crouching in front of Naruto and Hinata in utter silence, just looking at them as if he was waiting to be answered even though he hadn't said anything. He finally broke the silence by saying:  
"Alright, let us start off by showing off the strongest attack you have," he looked over at Naruto, "how about you start, Naruto-kun?" Naruto smiled and formed his favorite handsign.  
"Shadow clone jutsu!" A single clone appeared by his side, and started to form a perfect Rasengan in his hand. When it was fully formed, Naruto released his clone, and held the blue swirling sphere out for Hawkeye to see.  
To Hinata, the Rasengan didn't just look strong, but through her Doujutsu it looked beautiful. She hadn't tried looking at the Rasengan through her Byakugan before, but now that she did, she couldn't take her eyes off it. Hawkeye however, didn't look very impressed. Still in a crouching position, he pointed towards the position Naruto`s clone stood a second ago.  
"What was that?" He pried. Naruto looked to his side.  
"What, my clone?" Hawkeye nodded.  
"Yes, your clone. Why did you use a clone for that," Naruto scratched the back of his head after dissolving the Rasengan.  
"Well... my chakra control isn't the best in the world, so I can't form a Rasengan without it." Hawkeye didn't respond.  
`If I am not wrong, it is most likely because of the Kyuubi. Considering the state of the seal, it will be hard to teach him how to get more control over his chakra.´ He smirked mentally to himself, `but I like a good challenge. Besides, it would not be as much fun if I let him be in his current state. The same goes for Hinata too... This will be interesting.´  
Hawkeye bowed his head and let out a deep sigh.  
"I have a lot of work to do..." Naruto looked mildly annoyed from what Hawkeye had just said, but before he knew it, Hawkeyes head popped up with a bright friendly smile. "Alright, your turn Hinata-chan."  
Hinata nodded, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She focused her chakra into her clenched fists, and soon after, a blue glow of chakra surrounded them. A little bit after, the chakra formed into the shape of lion heads, and Hinata opened her eyes, and said:  
"Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fist." The two males stood there looking at Hinata's Jutsu.  
"Wow," Naruto said in awe, "I always thought your best Jutsu was the Protection of the Eight Trigrams that you made a few years back." Hawkeye looked a little more alert from hearing that. Hinata dissolved the Jutsu, and blushed weakly from the memory.

"Well, ano... t-that`s... well, I just learned the Twin Lion Fists recently, but t-the Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-four Palms is my best defensive J-Jutsu," she bowed her head and started to fidget, something she thought she had gotten rid of by now. Hawkeye rose from his crouching position, and said in a mildly impressed voice:  
"You made a defensive Jutsu at such a young age?" He pressed the word defensive, and looked at Hinata for confirmation. She nodded weakly, not used to all the praise, but she didn't say anything.  
"Yeah, she managed to defend herself, me, Kiba and Shino from a swarm of bees by having thin beams of chakra coming out of her palm. She managed to cut all of the bees in clean halves," Naruto explained. Hawkeye looked even more surprised now, and he showed a facial expression he had never shown them before.  
`She managed to cut down a swarm of bees with thin chakra beams before they even got close to them? And at such a young age as well. That is incredible.´ Hawkeye's serious expression suddenly turned into a smile, and he clapped his hands together. "Well then, now that I know this, let us move over to the second phase."  
"And what's that?" Naruto asked.  
"You two will attack me with all you got, and I will defend myself. Shape up Hinata-chan." Hinata blushed a little deeper, but shook it off.  
"Let me guess," Naruto began, "you want us to take some bells from you right?" Naruto had seen Hawkeye and Kakashi talking on several occasions, and maybe Hawkeye had picked up an idea or two from him. The trick he used on Kakashi last time would most likely not help him here.  
"Bells?" Hawkeye replied, and cocked an eyebrow at Naruto. Naruto shook his head.  
"No, never mind." Hawkeye huffed and continued.  
"You are to come at me with the intent to kill, which means every attack you throw at me must be meant to kill."  
"What?" Hinata said, unsure of how else she could react to what she just heard.  
"Are you crazy?" Naruto asked mildly shocked. But Hawkeye just smiled innocently.  
"No Naruto, I am perfectly sane. I want you to do this so I can find out exactly how strong you are. But do not worry friends, I will be fine." He turned around and started walking towards the forest at the end of the training field. "If one of your attacks hits me without me being able to block it," he said and turned to face them, "I will bow to you and call you master."  
`Sounds interesting,´ Naruto thought, `but I should be careful since he actually said something like that.´  
"I think it is unnecessary for me to tell you two to work together," Hawkeye said, "you may start now."  
The two Shinobi nodded at each other, and took up their fighting stance. Hinata activated her family Doujutsu, while Naruto summoned a clone. The clone began to form a Rasengan in Naruto's hand, but before it could finish, it blew up in a puff of smoke. Naruto's eyes went wide, and in front of the two member team, stood Hawkeye pointing at them with the crossbow he normally wore on his back. He smirked at them, and said:  
"I know your weakness Naruto, and I will take advantage of that." Naruto tried to form another clone, but it disappeared as soon as it came to existence.  
Naruto-kun, get behind me," Hinata ordered. "I`ll cover you from the arrows." Naruto nodded. He ran behind Hinata, and summoned another clone. Hawkeye narrowed his eyes, and aimed his crossbow at Naruto's clone behind Hinata. He took another shot, but the arrow was destroyed by Hinata's Protection of the Eight Trigrams.  
Naruto now had a fully formed Rasengan in his hand, and now he was the one smirking at Hawkeye. Hawkeye smiled back, turned around and started running towards the forest.  
"Ey! Don't run away!" The blond ninja shouted.  
"This is not running away," Hawkeye shouted over his shoulder, "it is called a tactical retreat." `Let us see how well you will do inside my environment...´ Hawkeye ran into the dense forest, and disappeared.  
The two Shinobi stood their ground, looking into the forest.  
"We should go after him." Naruto said.  
"Hai," Hinata nodded, "but we must be careful, he must have a reason to draw us into the forest." Naruto made a silent nod in agreement, and they both took up the chase.  
"Hey," Naruto began, "did you notice how he didn't reload his crossbow after every shot?"  
"Yes, He must have installed an automated reloading system in his crossbow. We should act with caution, we don't know how fast he can shoot"  
"And he's dangerous at a distance, so we must get as close to him as possible," Naruto agreed. They continued cautiously through the forest, unknowing to the fact that Hawkeye was watching them from the treetops.

"So Kabuto has declared war on the Leaf?" One of the shadows asked.  
"Apparently so, after Orochimaru was killed by those Assassins, his little assistant has gained some nerve." One of the others confirmed.  
"I'm quite impressed that they managed to kill Orochimaru in his own village with so few men, hm."  
"This might actually be quite fortunate. If we attack after their little fight is over, we can easily get hold of the nine tails when they are weak," the leader said thoughtfully.  
"Yeah, that's a brilliant idea, lord Pain!" Tobi exclaimed in an octave to high.  
"But what about Sasuke?"  
"Oh, hehe. Concerned about your little brother, Itachi?" Kisame asked in an amused, yet ferocious voice. Itachi`s shadow looked towards Kisame, and answered in a monotone voice:  
"No, I just think that with Orochimaru dead, having Sasuke run freely around will only be a nuisance. He might actually become a threat."  
"I agree," Pain said, "but since we don't know anything about his whereabouts, we'll let the Leaf Village handle it. In the meantime," he continued' "I want you, Deidara and Tobi, to extract the three tails. We must be ready for the nine tails."  
Everyone in the room nodded, and their holograms disappeared. On the other side of the cave, a silent curse could be heard.  
"Oh, fuck me... This is not good," Joker said in a melancholic voice, "gotta go report this to the master, he`s not gonna like this." The Assassin disabled his invisibility Jutsu, and hurried out of the cave.

Hinata stopped short, turned quickly around and threw a kunai up into a tree trunk. Naruto looked up but saw nothing.  
"What was that?" He asked.  
"He's been following us for awhile now," Hinata responded.  
"What, Hawkeye?" Naruto asked. Hinata nodded, and on a tree branch they saw Hawkeye disabling his invisibility Jutsu.  
"Well," He smirked, "I guess I cannot hide from the great Hyuuga eyes... not even with my special cloaking Jutsu."  
"That's impossible," Naruto said in disbelief, "I didn`t even sense his chakra."  
"I said _special_ cloaking Jutsu, did I not? It conceals my chakra, but I guess I can still be seen by the Byakugan." Naruto and Hinata kept their eyes locked on Hawkeye, and waited for him to do something. Hawkeye however, did nothing. He just stood there smiling at them.  
Hawkeye noticed Naruto's expression change, and he eased himself closer to Hinata, and began whispering in her ear. Hawkeye cocked his eyebrow in mild surprise over the possibility that Naruto might actually have an idea.  
"Hey, Hinata-chan," Naruto whispered, "I have an idea." Hinata, surprisingly enough, didn't pay any heed to Naruto's closeness. That was one thing she had achieved in the three years Naruto had been away, once she was in combat, nothing else mattered.  
She nodded briefly, and they both began running towards Hawkeye. Now Hawkeye was getting worried. They would know better than to charge him blindly, so this could only mean they had some sort of plan. Whilst running, Naruto pulled an item out of his pocket and threw it in Hawkeye's direction. Hawkeye jumped out of the way, but the item Naruto had thrown exploded in a bright flash, blinding Hawkeye.  
`A flash grenade, how stupid can I be?´ Hawkeye thought as he landed ungracefully onto another tree branch. He managed to see now, to a certain extent at least, and saw both Naruto and Hinata jump at him. Hawkeye grabbed Naruto's wrist before it managed to connect with his hooded face, and threw him to his side, smashing him into a tree. He focused on Hinata's attack, but heard a poof from the direction he had thrown Naruto in. His eyes flickered over to his side, and saw smoke instead of Naruto.  
`Ai, paskáta*´ (*Oh, shit) he thought. He could sense the presence of the real Naruto behind him, and he could hear the swirling of the Rasengan. And to top it off, Hinata was also coming closer with fists shaped like two lions. He didn't like to admit it, but he was in a bad position. Hawkeye was no idiot however, and he had a plan. He had little time to do it though, and there was no room for mistakes.  
In one swift and fluid move, Hawkeye drew the long sword he had at his side, and quickly brought it down on the branch he was standing on. The silver blade cut clean through the branch, and both it and Hawkeye was falling down towards the ground below.  
Naruto and Hinata cancelled their Jutsus, but they still crashed into one another in midair, and fell down towards the ground as well.  
They both shook of the fall, stood up and looked over at Hawkeye, sword in hand, panting.  
"That was quite impressive. You nearly got me with that one, had it not been for my sword, I do not think I would have been able to dodge the attack. You both have my respect for outmaneuvering me like that." Naruto and Hinata betrayed no emotion. They stood fixated on Hawkeye.  
Hawkeye gave them a small smile, and took a stance with his sword. Hinata looked over at Naruto and gave him a questioning look, and Naruto returned it. They had never really taken any time to look at his sword before, and now that they did, they didn`t really know what to think. It was big. The handle was about the same size as the blade itself and made out of light brown oak, with golden vines etched into it. The silver blade was bent like a Katana and had some symbols carved along its length.  
Hawkeye had his left hand placed at the very bottom of the handle and his right at the top. He looked at the teens and said:  
"You have actually done very well thus far. And now that you have caught me, let us see how you handle close combat."  
Before the two teens could react, Hawkeye ran towards them, sword raised at his side. He had reached them in no time, and swung the blade at Hinata. Hinata barely jumped back in time, and saw Naruto slicing after Hawkeye with a kunai while he was still gathering himself after the missed charge. But Hawkeye was fast, and blocked the oncoming kunai with relatively ease. He looked Naruto in the eye.  
"Attacking a person with a sword head on with only a kunai is not the wisest thing to do, my friend," Naruto smiled.  
"This is just a distraction," Hawkeye cocked his eyebrows at Naruto, but suddenly realized what he meant. Hawkeye kicked Naruto away, and quickly dodged under Hinata's blow from behind. He reappeared behind her, and hit the pommel of his sword in the back of her head. Hinata made a loud moan as she fell to the ground, unconscious.  
"Hinata!" Naruto shouted and ran to her side. Hawkeye was letting out a breath he didn't know he held.  
"Well, there are certainly a lot of close calls today. You nearly got me again," he gasped as he saw Naruto racing at him, Rasengan in hand. He jumped out of the way just before Naruto's Rasengan hit the point he had been standing at just a split second ago. He breathed out again, "that was also a close call."  
Hawkeye didn't get to stand still for long, as Naruto came at him once again with another Rasengan in hand. Hawkeye sheathed his sword and thought:  
`Time for another tactical retreat,´ and began running in the opposite direction.  
Naruto was known for caring about his friends, and one of the things he hated the most was to see his friends get hurt. But when he saw Hinata getting knocked out, something snapped. He didn't know why he was getting so pissed about it, but he kept seeing something like a blurry dream play again and again in his head, and he didn't like it. So he snapped. It's not like the Kyuubi took over, he just got pissed, and he was now chasing Hawkeye out of the forest.  
Meanwhile, Hinata began to stir on the forest floor. She groaned as she slowly lifted her head, and yelped as she placed a hand where she had been hit.  
"N-Naruto-kun?" she said quietly, but she got no answer. She managed after a while to stand up, and she looked around with squinted eyes. After calming down a little, she could make out a lot of noise coming from the edge of the forest.  
"Naruto-kun is... fighting Hawkeye..." she moaned and began shuffling towards the sound.

Hawkeye dodged another attack from Naruto. Naruto ran after Hawkeye slicing after him with a kunai, giving Hawkeye no room to counterattack.  
"Stop moving!" Naruto shouted after Hawkeye.  
"No way," Hawkeye replied almost mockingly, "I am not suicidal. But I must say, you have gotten quite emotional, but I cannot say I blame you, after all, Hinata is a very lovely girl." Naruto seemed to calm down a little after hearing that, and whispered:  
"Lovely..? Love..?" Hawkeye noticed Naruto's temporary confusion, and charged in so he could finally take Naruto down. Naruto looked up to see Hawkeye closing in with his fist raised, and he twirled around Hawkeye, dodging his blow, and he slammed his fist into Hawkeye's back in the process.  
Hawkeye immediately came to a halt. He turned around slowly and looked over at Naruto with big eyes. Naruto looked equally surprised.  
`I definitely felt that hit. I definitely hit him.´ They just stood there looking at each other, not noticing Hinata wobbling out of the forest. Hawkeye collected himself, stood up straight and placed his hand over his heart. He bowed and said briefly:  
"Master..."  
Hinata stood in the edge of the forest, leaning against a tree. She looked over the scene in a mild daze, not fully understanding what was going on.  
"N-Naruto-kun?" she mumbled. Naruto looked towards the sound, and exclaimed happily:  
"Hinata-chan!" He ran past Hawkeye, over to Hinata and said proudly: "I beat him, Hinata-chan! I hit him!" Hinata sobered up at this and began congratulating Naruto.  
"That's fantastic Naruto-kun," over at the sideline, Hawkeye was watching both of them with a face that betrayed no emotions. Hinata continued to smile at her crush, "I knew you could do it Naruto-kun." Naruto blushed, and scratched the back of his head.  
"Well, I couldn't have done it without your help though," now Hinata's pale cheeks began to redden.  
"That's not true..."  
"No, Naruto-kun is right," Hawkeye said, his friendly smile back on his lips, "You two made a great team, and you really helped Naruto out during the fight." Naruto smiled enthusiastically.  
"Yeah, you're a lot better than you give yourself credit for Hinata-chan." Hinata smiled a sweet smile, and nodded lightly. Naruto smiled back at Hinata, and began thinking of the word `lovely´ again, but he was interrupted when Hawkeye asked:  
"Naruto-kun, after I knocked Hinata out, you attacked me several times with your Rasengan. I might be wrong since I was so busy dodging, but I did not see you make any clones." Naruto stared blankly at Hawkeye for a moment. Hinata did too.  
"Huh?"  
"You... did not use clones?" Hawkeye asked. Naruto stared dumbfounded at Hawkeye, but then he began to smile.  
"Hey, I didn't use a clone for my Rasengan!" Naruto held out his hand, and tried to make another one, but to no avail. They stood there looking at Naruto for a few seconds, when Hinata cut the silence.  
"Well... at least we know th-that you _can_ do it, Naruto-kun." Hawkeye nodded.  
"One can do incredible things in the heat of the moment. We will just have to work on that." Naruto nodded, mildly depressed, but he quickly went back to his normal cheery self. Hawkeye smiled and said: "We should end it here. I did not hit you too hard, but it would be wise for you to get some rest. Naruto will walk you home," Hinata looked at Naruto in the corner of her pale eyes, and Naruto gave her a handsome smile.  
"Sure, I'll walk you home, Hinata-chan."  
"Good, I will see you tomorrow."  
They all bid their farewells, then Naruto along with Hinata took began walking back towards the Village. Hawkeye stood there looking at their backs with a monotone facial expression as they got smaller and smaller.  
Hawkeye could hear somebody running behind him, but he didn't bother to look. Joker came panting heavily out of the forest, and said out of breath:  
"Master... I've got... bad news..." Hawkeye responded in a quiet voice:  
"...He hit me." Joker looked at the elf, still panting.  
"What?"  
"He hit me," Hawkeye repeated, and began to walk away. Joker just shook his head in confusion.  
"What?"

Naruto and Hinata walked down the road side by side, not saying anything at all. They were both smiling, and quite content with today. Naruto glanced over at Hinata, who wore a blissful smile, and said:  
"How's your head, Hinata-chan?" Hinata looked over at Naruto, placed a hand at the point she'd been hit, and said:  
"It still hurts, but Not as much as I would have expected. I will be fine tomorrow I guess." Naruto nodded.  
"That's good to hear, Hinata-chan. I got worried for a second when I saw Hawkeye knock you down." Hinata smiled at the fact that he worried for her, but it's not like that was something new. But still, she didn't really understand why he was worried.  
"I'm really glad to hear that, Naruto-kun, but why?" Naruto looked at Hinata questioningly  
"Huh?"  
"I mean," Hinata continued, "you know that Hawkeye wouldn't actually hurt either of us, so why were you worried?" Naruto stopped walking for a minute, before answering:  
"I don't know. He just had this look in his eyes when he hit you, he almost looked... I don't know. It doesn't matter. Hawkeye was right though, we do make a good team." Hinata smiled.  
"Yeah, we do."  
The two of them kept on talking merrily the entire way home. They eventually reached the Hyuuga mansion, and they turned to face each other. They just stood there though, looking at one another and not saying a word. Hinata could feel a blush creep up her cheeks so she said:  
"Thank you for walking me home Naruto-kun, I'll see you tomorrow." To Hinata's surprise, Naruto was the one to blush this time.  
"Uh, yeah. You're welcome Hinata-chan. See ya tomorrow." They both waved at each other, and walked their separate paths. But right before Hinata opened the gate of her home, she heard Naruto shout:  
"Ey, Hinata-chan! you didn't stutter or blush the entire way home!" This however caused Hinata to blush. Naruto laughed, and shouted a final goodbye.  
Hinata closed the gate, and smiled weakly to herself. She walked into the mansion, and was about to go to her room when she met Hiashi, her father.  
"Tou-san," she said respectfully, "how was your day?"  
"Eventful," Hiashi replied, "I have been in a meeting with the Hokage and the Assassins today. They will apparently prepare us for the oncoming attack."  
"Yes, I know." Hiashi nodded at her daughter before walking silently away. She then heard her father say:  
"I also hear you are being trained by the leader of the Assassins personally along with the Uzumaki child."  
"Yes, Tou-san." Hinata replied. Hiashi remained silent for a long time.  
"Make me proud." He then walked away. Hinata smiled, this had indeed been a good day.

Naruto was still walking home, and there was one word that was on his mind, `lovely´.

TBC

What do you think? Please leave a review to tell me what you think, because I really like your reviews, and it goes without saying that it's your reviews that makes me want to write this fanfic. Now, I don't really have a name for this fic, and I really suck at making names like that, so if any of you have an idea, please let me know. Have a nice day, and remember: I love you all :)

If you want to know how Hawkeye's sword looks like, just google search High Elven Sword. And also, my mid-terms are coming up, so I won't be writing any more for quite a while There is a chance that I will be taken up to exams as well, though that is unlikely as I'm a first year. So please be patient, my friends:)

Lord of Tuft.


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